Originally posted by FMF
I am not offended. I just think you are naive.

If a Russian poster tried to start a thread commemorating the Russian dead in Afghanistan but pointedly not the Afghan dead, you'd think it totally inappropriate.

If an Iraqi poster started a thread - on a Spirituality Forum! - commemorating only the Iraqi dead in the Iran-Iraq War, and not the Iranians, you'd ...[text shortened]... ad like this ~ is probably more suited to an American web site populated by patriotic Americans.

Your quintessentially political act ~ a thread like this ~ is probably more suited to an American web site populated by patriotic Americans.

No political act, your point has been noted. Thank you

Originally posted by KellyJay
It will not matter what the intent of any thread is, with some they will always take it to the
gutter it is where they live and breath.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Originally posted by yoctobyte
No political act, your point has been noted. Thank you

A political act to its very core, yoctobyte, just as it would have been if a Russian or an Iraqi had turned up here and exhorted people to remember and celebrate only their dead and not the people killed by the military forces of their countries.

Originally posted by yoctobyte
I agree wholeheartedly.

People all too often respond with ad hominems when confronted for their rather oblivious and presumptuous national chauvinism. I have presented a reasoned and principled objection to what you have sought to do with this thread and your compatriot KellyJay has not addressed it. What do you wholeheartedly agree with? His silly cliched personal insult? Oh dear. 😉

Originally posted by yoctobyte
I agree wholeheartedly.

The absolute worse part about it is, we are all guilty from time to time. 🙁
Some more than others, but we all go there.

Originally posted by KellyJay
The absolute worse part about it is, we are all guilty from time to time. 🙁
Some more than others, but we all go there.

Again, I agree.

Originally posted by ThinkOfOne
Why WWII?

It was the last time the United States was attacked by a foreign army so also the last time one could conceivably state any kind of "freedom" was defended through military operations. Of course, many war crimes and atrocities were committed by both major alliances in WW2, so perhaps a less unquestioningly positive approach to military operations might be warranted. I find it odd that American Christians in particular, who often claim killing to be wrong, seem to glorify warfare so often.

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
It was the last time the United States was attacked by a foreign army so also the last time one could conceivably state any kind of "freedom" was defended through military operations. Of course, many war crimes and atrocities were committed by both major alliances in WW2, so perhaps a less unquestioningly positive approach to military operations might b ...[text shortened]... Christians in particular, who often claim killing to be wrong, seem to glorify warfare so often.

That is false, it's perfectly possible to have 'freedom' in mind when conducting wars even
if you were not directly attacked or threatened. All that is required is empathy for others
who are being attacked. If the USA/NATO/the UN steps in to stop a genocide taking place
and installs peacekeeping troops, that could very much be cited as being for freedom.

This may well not be true of many or most 'wars' since WWII, but to state that that was the
last possible conflict at which freedom could have been a or the motivator is just simply not true.

Originally posted by googlefudge
That is false, it's perfectly possible to have 'freedom' in mind when conducting wars even
if you were not directly attacked or threatened. All that is required is empathy for others
who are being attacked. If the USA/NATO/the UN steps in to stop a genocide taking place
and installs peacekeeping troops, that could very much be cited as being for fr ...[text shortened]... t possible conflict at which freedom could have been a or the motivator is just simply not true.

It could have been, but it hasn't been. Remove the word "conceivably" if you wish.

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
It could have been, but it hasn't been.

Arguing that no war since WWII HAS been about freedom [and/or other worthy sentiments]
is entirely not the same as arguing that because WWII was the last time the USA was directly
attacked that it was the last POSSIBLE war where it COULD POSSIBLY have been about freedom.

You argued [intentionally or otherwise] the latter and not the former.

I don't think that the former is actually true, but the latter certainly is not.

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
It could have been, but it hasn't been. Remove the word "conceivably" if you wish.

No that doesn't help.

That entire sentence would have to be stricken.

Originally posted by ThinkOfOne
If Christianity were based upon the teachings of Jesus while He walked the Earth, you'd have a point there. But it isn't and you don't.

If what you and Rajk push here reflected Jesus' commandment to show love for your brothers in Christ, then you might have a point, but it doesn't and you don't.

Originally posted by Rajk999
She is a sonship devotee.

And you are a devotee of no one (not even Christ, for you do not follow ALL of His commandments, as you say we must do) but yourself.

Originally posted by FMF
Oh indeed I think it was very much your intent to engage in some "politics of war" ~ whether just clumsily, I don't know ~ when you sought, on an international web site, to exclude commemoration of the fate of the non-American victims of U.S. military action from this discussion. A political act down to its very core - some would say rather provocative, too.
...[text shortened]... r tongues, then a not-for-Americans-only spirituality forum is surely not the place to do it. 🙂

Another disgusting example of your endless quest to denigrate and deride other posters, especially Americans.

For your information, which you apparently lack, "Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the Union war dead with flowers. By the 20th century, competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions, celebrated on different days, had merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service." (Yeah, cut and paste from Wikipedia. Take a moment and get over it, if you'd like.)

It is a holiday for Americans to remember OUR country's war dead, not yours, like it or not. Feel free to begin a movement to get YOUR country to create a holiday to honor YOUR war dead. In the meantime, leave Americans to grieve and honor our war dead as we see fit.

YOU are the one insisting we must honor other countries' war dead also. That is not the purpose of this holiday. YOU are the one "politicizing" this American holiday.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Another disgusting example of your endless quest to denigrate and deride other posters, especially Americans.

For your information, which you apparently lack, "Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monda ...[text shortened]... That is not the purpose of this holiday. YOU are the one "politicizing" this American holiday.

ANZAC Day similarly is to remember the fallen of New Zealand (and Australia) but
her in NZ we remember ALL those that died and on the centennial of Gallipoli we
had Turkish dignitaries invited to the Dawn ceremony.

Clearly NZ goes to lengths to not glorify war and honour all those who died needlessly.