Quote Originally Posted by bturk667
So now we should condemn countries for not wanting to go to WAR? Or maybe just condemn them for not going to war when we want them to, to support our unjust ones? I am not justifying what the French, Germans, and Russians did, but it has not or will not effect us. How would our lives, or the course of our government, be any different if they were not bribed by Saddam. We still went to war without their support in Iraq. What, we would not have gone to war if they supported us?
The point that you missed is that terrorism affects all nations. Those who love freedom should understand that their freedom is jeopardized by the spread of terrorism. Those who want to protect the freedom they enjoy should contribute to the cost of removing that threat. They should not be given a free ride off the goodwill of the one nation in the world that has the greatest capacity to fight terrorism. That one nation has that capacity because of the effect that freedom has on the success of a nation.

In other words, the U.S. is so powerful because it has made choices to promote freedom both inside and outside of her borders. That freedom has transformed the country into the world's most powerful economic force on the planet, enabling the financing of the world's most powerful military force that is necessary to protect those freedoms. It's not a matter of resources. If it were, Russia would be the most powerful nation in the world. But because they made poor decisions many years ago and chose to stifle the freedoms of the Russian people, they are relatively weak now.

So, now we see the terrorist threat as something that threatens our freedoms. Not just ours, but ALL freedom-loving nations in the world. Will we act to protect those freedoms? YOU BET!! Will we act whether or not those other weaker nations participate? YOU BET! Is it right for other nations to piggyback on that fact? NOPE! Do you think any nations want to put their young men and women on the front lines? NO! But it's the price of maintaining those freedoms, and any nation that values her freedom should be willing to pay her fair portion of that cost.

We need to keep track of those nations who want to parasite off of our goodwill and remember their cowardly behaviour when it comes to economic decisions that affect them in the future.