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Originally posted by The Tourist.
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1. You clearly mentioned global warming: "Global warming is, at best, a junk science."
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Yeah, I did. My point was that there is no accurate scientific way to predict what will happen. Furthermore, even if there was a rise in temperature in the recent past (globally, which has not happened), that would not be evidence of man induced warming. A little known and often ignored fact is that temperature has been highly variable over time. There was a Middle Age warm period, followed by a mini-Ice Age. Global temperature can be affected by far more things than just man made CO2.
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2. It is global. A hole in the ozone layer does not only affect us, it affects the amazon, to name a few. As does forest clearing, which also happens to a lesser extent here. It may not affect you city dwellers, but neither does an Iraqi war. The threat of terrorism has been heightened not to an extent where we should live in fear, it has been heightened to an extent where it is simply a security CONCERN. It has the same chance of happening as being hit by a bus and not many people leave the house in fear of being hit by a giant freaking bus.
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Well, just to clear it up, I'm not a city dweller. Global warming? No.
There has likely been no net warming in the past 70 years. And concrete evidence shows slight
cooling over the past 20 years.
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but those of us who are educated and smart enough to make a proper judgement had the opinion that the war was unjust, unneccesary and we did not have enough information to know that there were weapons of mass destruction. We were proved right: we found no weapons of mass destruction, we're in the country for longer than we thought and now Bush knows he has made a mistake, whether he cares to admit it or not. I don't think an Iraq war is going to make my life more secure, I think it is making it less secure. It's obvious because this is happening now and will continue to happen. A whole generation is now growing up in Iraq wanting to avenge the deaths of mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters killed by Coalition Forces. It will hardly be secure in short-term or the foresee-able long-term. It will take perhaps centuries for this to fix itself now.
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There were other reasons than WMD, although that was a big one. Firstly, our intelligence and nearly every other intelligence agency in the world said that Saddam had WMD. Saddam was
obligated to disarm following the Gulf War cease fire. Iraq was a safe haven for terrorists. Iraq set bounties on the heads of Israelies by giving thousands of dollars to suicide bombers. Abu Nidal, Abdul Rahman Yasin, Khala Khadr al-Salahat, Abu Abbas, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi- all terrorists with connections to Iraq. Right up until the end, Saddam had projects on weaponizing things like Anthrax. Also, the Congressional Resolution on the use of force in Iraq stated more than WMD, Saddam's failure to comply with the cease-fire, failure of full cooperation with inspectors, ending support for international terrorists groups, human rights violations and threats against neighboring countries. You add his WMD
use, to outstanding weapons not accounted for by the weapons inspectors, to ties to international terrorist organizations and intent to make more weapons- and its becomes clear that Saddam was a danger.
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Regarding global enviroment situations: it makes me saddened to hear that you call these situations 'doom and gloom', because simply, Global Warming for one will get out of control, whether it happens to our children or to their children. That is something worth fighting for. To be realistic, I would rather make sure my child's life is secure before someone elses child. Those are just my fatherly instincts. I don't think waging a war on a middle eastern country is making anything safer.
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Like I said, global temperature readings say otherwise. Now, I am in favor of a scientific approach to global warming. My stance is that there are too many variables that cannot be accounted for when talking about global warming, making such things highly unscientific and inaccurate (which is why I ultimately find it irresponsible). That is further compounded by evidence of significant climate changes before man produced CO2 became significant.
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By waging war through choice rather than neccesity, we are sending a message to the world that our countries are war-mongerers. By only fighting war in neccesity, and fighting a war with a message of peace, that makes things better. That is my ultimate opposition to the war. And I think that if our countries went to war in a solar-powered tank, then perhaps it would actully give the war a different image, no matter how stupid it sounds.
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If not now, then when? When Saddam had definitively gained WMD? When he started to show them off and blackmailed us with them? When the mass graves around his country had 500,000 instead of 300,000 people in them? When he passed off a WMD to a terrorist organization? This isn't a problem that was going to go away. It had to be done sooner or later, and it could only have gotten worse.
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On defense, I... remain skeptical. I think homeland security is an important issue to a country brutally attcked from without, but I can't help but shudder to think about covert racial profiling and 'Freedom' Fries, excessive, unchecked government spending and bills passed into law restricting freedoms so dearly fought for under the banner of America the Beautiful not so long ago. It is definitely something the government needs to concern itself with, and regardless of how I feel certain countries are doing that, the fact remains that security is much more important to discuss than abortion.
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Racial profiling isn't ideal, but it is realistic. After all, Muslim extremists that try and fly airplanes into buildings have provably looked a certain way. Do you know of a better way? 'Freedom Fries' is harmless, and of course, people have every right to peacefully disagree with France's stance. Excessive gov't spending is bad, but most of that bad spending comes from welfare programs and inflated education spending (surprisingly more than the war). Now, the 'Patriot Act' is hardly ideal, but it isn't a disaster either. As for curtailing rights to freedom of speech and religion, in Canada (for instance), anti-discrimination laws can make Biblical teachings on homosexuality a criminal offense, is that right?