evolution

i have always felt that this should not be a political blog, and i have even gone so far as to never post about politics - an arena in which i typically do not involve myself. i am a liberal in some respects and conservative in others. i believe the death penalty should be abolished. i believe that possessing small amounts of marijuana (although i don’t use the stuff myself) should be punishable only by fines or be legalized altogether. (crimes committed under the influence of any drug, however, would be punished very harshly in the “j.d. states of america”.) i believe that education at all levels should be a higher priority than it is. i believe that racial prejudice still dogs us today, and that we do not do enough to stamp it out. i believe that defense of our nation in all respects is paramount. i believe that the u.s. army should be made available to defend america’s borders and apprehend illegal immigrants. nearly every other country in the world does this. i believe that osama bin laden and his ilk should be ruthlessly crushed wherever they are found.

all of this brings me to my main point. after reading the contributions of other bloggers, i am coming out in favor of any war with iraq which will either kill or depose saddam hussein and his cronies, and i am against the back-stabbing french and german governments (neither of which would exist in their current forms if not for american intervention). i want to see our nation safe from madmen and their weapons, and i want to see an arab world as the peaceful center for history, knowledge, and scholarship that it once was. doing the right thing in a saddam-free iraq can help that along. it is obvious, even to me, that u.n. inspections are not helping at all. i support closing all u.s. military installations in germany and the removal of our diplomats from france, germany, and saudi arabia (from where 19 of the 21 hijackers who destroyed the world trade center hailed). we should redirect our diplomatic and military efforts toward people and nations that will appreciate them, or else not offer them at all. those resources could be used here at home. i believe that the united nations is an impotent body, and that we are served better by dealing directly with those nations who may not always agree with us, but are our friends nonetheless, such as china, russia, israel, britain, and our neighbors canada (when their officials aren’t calling us bastards) and mexico.

in short, we as a nation waste too much time, money, and manpower on nations and people which hate us because we exist. we should instead direct those resources inward to improve things for americans of all kinds here.