Simon:
Is this where Englishman wades in and tells us to knock it on the head?...lol
First off, you are linking "anti-war" with "anti-American", not me. My post was not actually on the subject of the Iraq war, but on general political thought. I know it's a thread about Iraq, but I didn't see the point of starting a whole new thread just for this.
So, just for the record, I don't think being against the Iraq war is anti-American. I think being left-wing is anti-American. That most of the anti-war support has come from the left is simply because there is a right-wing government in power. Call me cynical, but if there had been a democrat government during this episode, I think the left would have been singing quite a different tune. There an Arab saying that goes something like "whichever God the King worships his subjects will worship." The anti-war cause is something that the left has been able to hang its hat on in order to attack the current right-wing government, that's all.
To claim that being left-wing means one is anti-American' means that you MUST be right-wing to truly support the American ideals and yet this throws all these same ideals of freedom and rights that you claim America stands for away!
I agree with the first half of that statement. America is founded upon ideals that are right-wing. I disagree with the last half. If someone wants to be anti-American, that's up to them. My identifying them as anti-American in no way takes away their freedom to act however they like. Saying that I can't identify them as anti-American takes away my freedom of speech and expression.
Real freedom is being able to stand up and say "This is WRONG and we want better". Being forced to comply and stay silent on issues is what happens when either extreme, both right and left, have too much power.
Yes! (finally we agree!...lol) But as mentioned, it is the left that tends more towards the curtailment of these freedoms.
Lastly, I can't quite believe this statement:
Communism isn't coming to get you and it never was, the whole idea was an invention of our own governments as a way to control us.
I would like to watch you explain that to my parents in-law, who had to abandon everything they had and flee with just what they and their children could carry, when the tanks of the Communist State rolled through Hungary.
Btw, I know you are a member of the Tory party. But, you also support Manchester City, so I must conclude that you just have an extraordinary sympathy for the underdog...lol
Expatbrit