I have been hearing about freedom quite a lot these days. When the new Iraqi government took over, George Bush hand-wrote "Let freedom reign" over the note announcing the hasty ceremony. It puzzled me as Iraq is one of the least free places in the world and has been so for decades. There are no elected representatives and officials have either been appointed by the last dictator or by a foreign military which invaded the country without international approval. Civilians can be detained without trial and foreigners are not accountable to Iraqi courts.Yet George Bush now seems to regard Iraq as a free country.
I have always thought the concept of freedom was an example of Amercian hypocrisy - to claim one thing in the face of evidence to the contrary. Americans seem to have no difficulty in claiming their country to be the land of the free, even for the years while African slaves were held in chains.
As I read through the posts here, I am beginning to understand how slaves can exist in a free society. There is no double think here - the concept of freedom for Americans is freedom for those who matter - freedom for the winners. Slaves were not American citizens and so their slavery was immaterial. The Iraqis are not free either but the American troops are - free to do as they wish in a foreign country. As George recognises, there is freedom in Iraq - just not for Iraqis.
dude that is not true at all. many countries are not what you and i would consider "free". give america a break man we are doing the best we can to fix the bad situation we got ourselves into over there. why is it that you dont really see too many threads pointing out flaws in other countries? is it because there is nothing wrong with them, or is it because you just love to get us americans all stirred up? the majority of us dont go around picking at your country. im sure we could. no body is perfect, so why treat america like we should be. administrations make mistakes. i would hate to think what my life in the military would be like if al gore would have been running things.