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 Members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment place American flags at Arlington National Cemetery.
May 28th, 2012
12:01 PM ET
My Take: The 5 key American statements on war
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN (CNN) - Today is a day to remember those who have given their lives in the service of their country. It is also a day to reflect on war. In my new book, "The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation," I explore 27 texts that have served as “scripture” of sorts in American public life. Each of these texts addresses the meaning of “America” and “Americans,” and each has provoked much commentary and controversy. Here are the five best, in my view, on the meaning and ends of war. 1. George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) This justly famous farewell address is celebrated today among social conservatives for commending religion as a “pillar” of good government. Those seeking an antidote to our current epidemic of petty partisanship quote its condemnation of "the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party." But Washington was a military man, so he also warns us against the evils of loving or hating any nation. To do either, he writes, “is in some degree to become a slave ... to its animosity or to its affection.” CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories How many of our troubles today arise from "passionate attachment" toward some nations or "inveterate antipathies" against others? How many wars in U.S. history might have been avoided if we had heeded the wisdom of Washington's "foreign policy of independence"? 2. Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” (1849) In July 1846, while living in his Walden Pond cabin, Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau was arrested and jailed for refusing to pay a poll tax. This classic essay explains and justifies his refusal, arguing that each citizen has a duty to resist a government whose actions — in this case, supporting slavery, mistreating Indians and prosecuting the Mexican-American War — offend the higher law of conscience. “Civil Disobedience” has been criticized as naïve, but this "bible of protesting minorities" profoundly influenced both Mohandas Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and, through them, both Indian independence and the U.S. civil rights movement. 3. Chief Joseph’s Surrender Speech (1877) What do you say after you and your people (the Nez Perce) have been fleeing American soldiers for three months and 1,500 miles, when your people are hungry and freezing and mass death seems the only alternative to surrender? In a word, this. As legend has it, Chief Joseph handed over his gun. He took an inventory of the dead. He said he was tired of fighting. Then he said, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” Or did he? Most scholars now believe that this speech was actually written after the fact by an aide to an American general. Nonetheless, it has been quoted in song lyrics, memorialized in a Ken Burns documentary and immortalized in a book-length poem by Robert Penn Warren. Chief Joseph's words were celebrated in his time because they called attention to the human costs of westward expansion and Manifest Destiny. They live today because they symbolize the tragedies of Native American history. 4. President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961) Echoing Washington, who spoke against “overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty,” President Eisenhower issued a similar warning in his farewell address: in this case against the “unwarranted influence” of the “military-industrial complex.” Although lost in the moment, which belonged to the inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Camelot myth, these words rang like prophecy in the late 1960s, when allegations that “merchants of death” were holding the country hostage became a staple at Vietnam War protests. Today, hope for anything like the “balance” Eisenhower sought between the demands of the military and the demands of liberty seems hopelessly nostalgic. The United States now spends more on its military than next 10 biggest spenders combined. 5. Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) This reflective black granite memorial cut into the Earth on the National Mall in Washington is not a text in any conventional sense, so I blanched when a friend suggested that I include it in “The American Bible.” But architect Maya Lin herself saw it as “analogous to a book,” and so it is: more than 58,000 names carved into reflective black granite, waiting for visitors to read them and weep. Long before it was opened, critics derided this memorial as a “black gash of shame” and “a tribute to Jane Fonda.” Where was the reassurance that the Vietnam War was a noble cause? Where were the heroic images of our fallen fighters? When it opened, however, its undeniable emotional power silenced most naysayers. Lin wanted her creation to serve as a place where Americans could go to think about the war without being told what to think and to speak to the dead without being told what to say. It did just that. Today, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is an American Lourdes: a pilgrimage site where the living come to commune with the dead and to reckon with war and their own mortality in the medium of the mirror that is the Wall. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Stephen Prothero.
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  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of 
Americans: Wars do not benefit you in any way. Ask your government is quit its imperialist agenda. Remove them from office. Do not watch CNN or any other mainstream media. The wars are bankrupting you. All that wasted money could've been spend on education. Ask your government to change its foreign policy and drop its support for Israel!
Why did God put all that oil under the Middle East? That part of the world has been a pain in the butt for humankind for two millenia.
@flako, you dare to question the mind of God? Maybe his real name is Allah...or maybe ALL of the God talk is nonsense and it's all because of tectonic drift. He put a lot of oil in Texas too, another home of crazies.
Bobo actually went to Arlington this year! and covered his heart with the right hand! bonus! I just wonder if Michelle cursed the American flag again like she did at the 911 ceremony... so much class
Splasher, you did not mention which branch of the military YOU served in.
Military? Splasher couldn't pass the ASVAB test. Guy's a m0r0n.
Just another hater.
USA needs to stop enjoying and feeding the USA War Juggernaut, end the military madness, put a stop to war. War is sick. Intelligent humans should be able to avoid the sickness called war.
Stop all your gayness Gary...we all know you're straight!
if they paid for our freedom, we're certainly paying for everything else!
(oh...and the last time our freedom was even remotely endangered was during WWII...I'm not about to thank a bunch of kids who decided to be part of killing thousands of innocent middle eastern civilians, which is what the last 20 years has been).
iagree are you one of those people who don't believe in Al Qaeda?
Mike B,
I'm sure Al Qaeda is real...I'm sure it exists everywhere too...your local 7/11 is probably a sleeper cell ready to go...lets just go to war with every country since we know terrorists are everywhere out there. The only thing worse would be a communist Al Qaeda...two of our enemies combined!! Oh wait...are communist still our enemies? If not, why did we go to Vietnam?
Obviously we don't need full scale wars to get the target...but if paying for a tank you can't afford is what you want then lets keep buying tanks...Bush was able to double our debt in his 8 years primarily due to crazy military spending, and Obama isn't doing very well either.
When will Americans realize we're just a big Greece in default denial? Sure, it would be nice to try to prevent everything bad in the world, but we need to face the fact that we cannot afford it!
Spending will be the demise of America, not Al Qaeda.
You do realize that it was Al Qaeda who was killing all of the civilians in Iraq. This was their best strategy for defeating the Americans, hoping that they could generate enough pressure to get Americans to withdraw. Of course the left wing media and the Democrats were unwittingly helping Al Qaeda in their propaganda war, but its sad that even today most of you are unwilling to admit that Al Qaeda was even there.
To say that the main impact of the American military over the past 20 years has been to kill middle eastern civilians is either severely naive or tastelessly dishonest. Stop repeating a lie that excuses your enemies from their carelessness about human life, and that insults the sacrifice of good American soldiers; many of whom died protecting Iraqis civilians.
next time the conservatives are knocking the occupy I'm going to use the . Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” (1849)
In July 1846, while living in his Walden Pond cabin, Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau was arrested and jailed for refusing to pay a poll tax. This classic essay explains and justifies his refusal, arguing that each citizen has a duty to resist a government whose actions — in this case, supporting slavery, mistreating Indians and prosecuting the Mexican-American War — offend the higher law of conscience.
“Civil Disobedience” has been criticized as naïve, but this "bible of protesting minorities" profoundly influenced both Mohandas Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and, through them, both Indian independence and the U.S. civil rights movement.
Occupy wall street doesn't even make sense. What are you even protesting? That some people have more money than others? That the U.S. has too much freedom? Not enough regulations? Somehow I doubt that someone like Ghandi would be very interested in your version of injustice.
the enlightened men of his day understood what GW was on about and today the secrete societies hate when embedded in the language is universal keys of wisdom ...look here--> "...But Washington was a military man, so he also warns us against the evils of loving or hating any nation. To do either, he writes, “is in some degree to become a slave ... to its animosity or to its affection.”
this my friend is a universal key to your freedom ....if you can hear the message. The lock this principle unlocks is bigger than just this small subject matter, but don't be fooled the power is tremendous as this is "THE" key to changing everything in your world and to have teh universe's tumblers open everything as it should be for you to enter. THIS KEY is the lost message of Jesus and the not-so secret of his power. LISTEN here it is and in plain English... "you don't have to like everything ...you just don't need to dislike it." try administrating that notion on everything in your life (under that one rule) and see what great life-changing things happen to you. let the words of wisdom be met with understanding ear.
Religion is the biggest cause of war in humanity. Religion is bogus and destructive. There are literally hundreds of religions in our world. Each one claims to be the real one. How stupid is that? And these "beliefs" and this "faith" people talk about amount to nothing but wishful thinking.
and they are all ancient myths, invented my primitive men ... and here we are in the 21st century without a single scrap of proff of any deity, demon, or heaven or hell, and so many still believe the BS
Prove you're not gay Gary. PROVE IT!
Great article. I wish CNN did more of these. Washington, Lee, and Eisenhower saw the need for religion in government. Washington said, "It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." If you need further proof, read Washington's address when he proclaimed Thanksgiving Day. It is an astounding speech.
If we oppose Islamization of foreign governments, we can not in the same breath declare that we want our own government to be founded primarily on religious principles.
I would rather pay for a defense than a nation of lazy people.
I'd rather pay for education than suffer a nation of judgmental ignoramuses.
Then start paying. School system is hurting bad... Unions no doubt.
"I firmly believe, that before many centuries more, science will be the master of man. The engines he will have invented will be beyond his strength to control. Someday, science shall have the existence of mankind in its power, and the human race commit suicide by blowing up the world."
Henry Adams, 1862.
I have no problem with that. I can't see how machines could do any worse than we do.
Interesting... Apparently the advice of Washington, Thoreau* and Eisenhower were ignored, Chief Joseph represents surrender to those who would take everything you have and the war memorial is, well, a war memorial... I guess the message of this essay is we ignore good advice and you were unfortunate to be born indigenous?
*Civil disobedience has accomplished things in America, but it has never stopped nor slowed wars.
"He who chooses security before liberty deserves neither". -Benjamin Franklin.
PRAYER LIFTS MY SPIRITS AND THE TIME I SPEND IN MEDITATION WITH THAT STILL SMALL VOICE OF GOD TRANSFORMS ME INTO A CONNECTED STATE OF HEART AND MIND. I AM LESS PETTY, ARROGANT AND HATEFUL. I AM MORE PATIENT, LOVING, HOPEFUL AND FAITH INSPIRED. THANK YOU JESUS, I AM SORRY THAT SUCH BRUTALITY AND BARBARIC BEHAVIOR IN WAS REVEALED IN THE LIGHT OF YOUR SACRIFICE. WE CAN LOOK TO JESUS CHRIST AND WORK TOWARD A HIGHER CHARACTER, PERSONALITY AND LIFE. THANK YOU.
Prayer has been shown to have no discernible effect towards what was prayed for.
Prayer makes you frothy like Rick Santorum. Just go to http://santorum.com to find out more.
Prayer prevents you from getting badly needed exercise.
Prayer makes you fat, pale, weak, and sedentary.
Prayer wears out your clothes prematurely.
Prayer contributes to global warming through excess CO2 emissions.
Prayer fucks up your knees and your neck and your back.
Prayer can cause heart attacks, especially among the elderly.
Prayer reveals how stupid you are to the world.
Prayer exposes your backside to pervert priests.
Prayer makes you think doilies are exciting.
Prayer makes you secretively flatulent and embarrassed about it.
Prayer makes your kids avoid spending time with you.
Prayer gives you knobbly knees.
Prayer makes you frothy like Rick Santorum. Just google him to find out.
Prayer dulls your senses.
Prayer makes you post really stupid shit in all caps.
Prayer makes you hoard cats.
Prayer makes you smell like shitty kitty litter and leads you on to harder drugs.
Prayer wastes time.
Whatever floats your boat my friend. Cheers!
Delusions can be so comforting and seem so real. Irish are convinced Leprechauns are real too.
Hi Gary,
Thanks for breaking up with me only to come out of the closet and marry your gayy neighbor Jim. How's that working out for you?
Go to hell Gary. Go to hell.
Sally (Your straight loving ex-girlfriend)
Obviously, prayer has not cured you of the annoying habit of posting in all caps.
Wars will indeed continue. Palestine is a prime example. Two peoples desiring to live on the same place of land. It's not an issue of religion. It's an issue of usurpation: illegal Zionists pushing out the natives. We have a war brewing in our nation too: The gays want full, unconditional acceptance. Some of us will never accept such repugnant act.
Gary is gay!
MikeM, I think you are confused. Gays do not want total unconditional acceptance, they just want equal rights under the law.
If you do not like gays, chances are most of them have never told you they are gay for that very reason, yet you like them okay if they never tell you the truth.
You are almost sure to have at least one person in your life that you -like- who has always hidden their personal s3xual orientation from you because they feared a backlash from bigots like you.
I am not gay, but I have as online friends a large number of LGBT people. I'll be honest: seeing two men kiss looks really gross to me, but I am always able to avoid looking at it when it happens.
When I see two men holding hands, it is a little strange-looking, but in this they are like children, so I do not think it gross but only an aspect of childlike friendship that is part of every friendship and romantic relationship. It doesn't hardly bother me at all.
As to gay marriages and the like, I ignore all of that since it doesn't affect me in any way. I feel the same way about straight marriages. To me, someone else being married or not doesn't mean a thing. I couldn't care less if someone is married or not, since none of that stuff impacts my life in any way. Gay or straight or pluralistic or whatever – those relationships are not my business in the normal course of things. I do not have any business intruding into the relationships of other people unless it is harmful to someone. Then it becomes everyone's business to see that the harm is stopped somehow.
But gays? Why should you care? If people make noise having s3x at night and I find it bugs me, it doesn't matter who is involved, the solution is better sound-proofing, not shooting tear-gas into their bedrooms or fire-bombing their house.
I don't want to hear the sounds of other people having s3x. Other than that sort of thing, I really do not expect to be bothered in any way by what other people do as consenting adults. They have a relationship that does not include me, and I am not going to intrude into their lives, and their relationship doesn't impact my life, so why should it matter what their orientation is?
I used to be ho.mo.phobic when I was younger, but I had personal reasons for the phobia I have grown past over time with therapy. Maybe you should get some therapy, MikeM.
Chances are you have some issues you need to grow past to become a more mature person towards other adults.
I remember the fear and the disgust. If you can set that aside and do your best to understand why you feel that way, you might be able to join the rest of us in the 21st Century.
Robert E Lee said some of the most stirring words about the nature of warfare.
"It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it."
Comment to James Longstreet, on seeing a Federal charge repulsed in the Battle of Fredericksburg (13 December 1862)
"What a cruel thing is war; to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbours, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world! I pray that, on this day when only peace and good-will are preached to mankind, better thoughts may fill the hearts of our enemies and turn them to peace. ... My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men."
Letter to his wife on Christmas Day, two weeks after the Battle of Fredericksburg
It's vital that the American people don't forget these wise words even in this day when we can fight wars remotely and at little sacrifice to the homeland.
Wow! Powerful words. Thank you.
Stonewall Jackson had it right though. He said :"When war does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the
scabbard."
@johnny America, Stonewall didn't need a scabbard or sword after he got shot, lost his left arm and died. Fitting end to a murderous religious fanatic.
It is so unfortunate that Americans don't understand war. How terrible it is, how inhumane, how perfectly evil. It's because Americans have not felt the true effects of war since the Civil War. War always happens on someone else's soil, it just something we watch on TV. That's why it's so easy for us to visit war onto others; because we have no-one bombing our cities, we think that war is a joke.
Historians tell us that Eisenhower edited his speech at the last minute to remove the word Congressional from preceeding Military Industrial Complex.
Yet the Congressional Military Industrial Complex a cadre of congress people who chair and sit on committees that authorize military spending have bankrupted the nation and in the wake of 9-11 created a host of liberty robbing laws that are the anti-thesis to what our founders wanted.
Bankrupt and borrowing money just to pay the interest on the loans through emergency approvals as former Marine Core Smedley Darligton Butler testified before congress almost a 100 years ago War is a racket that serves primarily and in almost all cases the corporations that make money off of promoting it and through the resources they acquire by fighting them.
I've reached a point in life where sadly I hate to say but must that "I'm ashamed of our nation".
Military spending has not bankrupted our nation. It may have contributed to it. But to put full blame on military spending alone shows great ignorance of the fiscal demands on our country.
US taxpayers pay for 43% of all military expenses spent on the entire planet earth.
@ Mrs, I don't think you have any idea that the United States is in fact in Bankruptcy and has been since the 1930's and what the elements were that led to that bankruptcy.
But by all means keep pretending you know things and chastizing others over what you imagine you know.
Another problem with our Defense spending is that so much of it is NOT in the Defense appropriation.
Military pensions and welfare programs are budgeted separately and come to another $250 billion a year. You can add another $800 billion a year if you budget for future commitments, such as the future cost of pensions for our current standing military, so while the Defense appropriation is $640 billion, the actual cost to tax payers has been estimated at $1.7 trillion dollars each year – about 40% of the annual Federal budget.
In a desolate and godforsaken part of the world, Isikveren, in the mountain that divides Turkey and Iraq, there was an encampment of 160,000 Kurdish refugees. They fled Iraq and crossed into Turkey to escape the revenge of Saddam during the 1st Gulf War.
There was a team of 6 members of the 1/10th Special Forces and 2 US Air Force Para Rescuemen, along with a Canadian Special Ops Medical officer. They were overwhelmed by the desolation. They set up a tent and said they would provide medical aid to children under one year of age. The infants were dying of dehydration. The water was foul causing nausea and diarrhea and thus dehydration. They could not rehydrate them. Water by mouth cuased them to choke, so they tried starting IVs but they were so terribly dehydrated they could not find veins.
That night, 40 infants died in our tent, but they did not quit. Thanks to largely American military efforts, they were able to bring in oral rehydration salts to add to clean water dropped by air...they immunized every child under 5 yrs against measles, which is the biggest killer in these circu.mstances.
As the coalition moved Iraqui forces south of the 36th parallel, the Kurds started to come home into northern Iraq. It was almost 2 months since that night in Isikveren and the Canadian Medic was doing a medical needs assesment in Sw Iraq. The troops operating there were 42 Commando, British Royal Marines. He was riding in a Land Rover with a Capt of the Royal marines when they came on a family camped by the road. It was mother, father and 2 children, boy and girl, about 8/9 yrs old. The father had strung a rope from a tree with an old tire on it as a swing. The kids were swinging away and laughing.
The soldiers stopped and watched...they had not heard children laugh since their arrival in Iraq.
The Canadian looked at the Royal marine and tears were streaming down his face.
It was then that he truly realized that what they did, the soldiers on the ground, made a difference.
That's what soldiers do... make a difference.
No soldier supports war after they have been exposed.
They do support their Regiment...their buddies.
Men do not die for god, queen or country or all the glorious propaganda...in the end they do what they do, including some extraordinary feats of heroism and sacrifice, for their comrades.
And sometimes they just murder everybody that's in their way. Remember MyLai? Soldiers aren't saints, contrary to what you have to say. Perhaps the men who fought Hitler were an exception; the professional soldiers of today are mostly immoral killers, acting out of their economic interest. I've met enough of them.
dont forget Moo-shell "crazy eyes" obama's memorial day appropriate comment – "all this for a damn flag"
Today is the day to remember the sacrifices of the fallen and all you can think to do is bad mouth the first lady. You are a sad pathetic little man.
What Dave said.
Hey Matt, Great post I think. BTW, GARY IS GAY!!!!!!
Sally and Matt, two peabrains in a sick fever.
Prayer changes things
Prayer takes people away from actually working on real solutions to their problems.
Prayer has been shown to have no discernible effect towards what was prayed for.
Prayer makes you frothy like Rick Santorum. Just go to http://santorum.com to find out more.
Prayer prevents you from getting badly needed exercise.
Prayer makes you fat, pale, weak, and sedentary.
Prayer wears out your clothes prematurely.
Prayer contributes to global warming through excess CO2 emissions.
Prayer fucks up your knees and your neck and your back.
Prayer can cause heart attacks, especially among the elderly.
Prayer reveals how stupid you are to the world.
Prayer exposes your backside to pervert priests.
Prayer makes you think doilies are exciting.
Prayer makes you secretively flatulent and embarrassed about it.
Prayer makes your kids avoid spending time with you.
Prayer gives you knobbly knees.
Prayer makes you frothy like Rick Santorum. Just google him to find out.
Prayer dulls your senses.
Prayer makes you post really stupid shit.
Prayer makes you hoard cats.
Prayer makes you smell like shitty kitty litter and leads you on to harder drugs.
Prayer wastes time.
What does it change? You spam this yet, you never say what it changes.
Prayer changes things
Prayer changes lives
Proven
God has a plan. Don't screw it up with your prayers.
Prayer has been shown to have no discernible effect towards what was prayed for.
Prayer makes you frothy like Rick Santorum. Just go to http://santorum.com to find out more.
Prayer prevents you from getting badly needed exercise.
Prayer makes you fat, pale, weak, and sedentary.
Prayer wears out your clothes prematurely.
Prayer contributes to global warming through excess CO2 emissions.
Prayer fucks up your knees and your neck and your back.
Prayer can cause heart attacks, especially among the elderly.
Prayer reveals how stupid you are to the world.
Prayer exposes your backside to pervert priests.
Prayer makes you think doilies are exciting.
Prayer makes you secretively flatulent and embarrassed about it.
Prayer makes your kids avoid spending time with you.
Prayer gives you knobbly knees.
Prayer makes you frothy like Rick Santorum. Just google him to find out.
Prayer dulls your senses.
Prayer makes you post really stupid shit.
Prayer makes you hoard cats.
Prayer wastes time.
Prayer is a megalomaniacal scream that God doesn't know how to run his world and needs advice.
Beyond Speeches:
Our War on Terror and Horror: An Memorial Date Update–
-Operation Iraqi Freedom- The 24/7 Sunni-Shiite centuries-old blood feud currently being carried out in Iraq, US Troops killed in action, 3,480 and 928 in non combat roles as of 09/15/2011/, 102,522 – 112,049 Iraqi civilians killed as of 9/16/2011/, mostly due to suicide bombers, land mines and bombs of various types, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ and http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf
– Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan: US troops 1,385 killed in action, 273 killed in non-combat situations as of 09/15/2011. Over 40,000 Afghan civilians killed mostly due to the dark-age, koranic-driven Taliban acts of horror,
– Sa-dd-am, his sons and major he-nchmen have been deleted. Sa-dd-am's bravado about WMD was one of his major mistakes. Kuwait was saved.
– Iran is being been contained. (beside containing the Sunni-Shiite civil war in Baghdad, that is the main reason we are in Iraq. And yes, essential oil continues to flow from the region.)
– North Korea is still u-ncivil but is contained.
– Northern Ireland is finally at peace.
– The Jews and Palestinians are being separated by walls. Hopefully the walls will follow the 1948 UN accords. Unfortunately the Annapolis Peace Conference was not successful. And unfortunately the recent events in Gaza has put this situation back to “squ-are one”. And this significant stupidity is driven by the mythical foundations of both religions!!!
– – Fa-na–tical Islam has basically been contained to the Middle East but a wall between India and Pakistan would be a plus for world peace. Ditto for a wall between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
– Timothy McVeigh was exe-cuted. Terry Nichols escaped the death penalty twice because of deadlocked juries. He was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole,[3][7] and is incarcerated in ADX Florence, a super maximum security prison near Florence, Colorado. He shares a cellblock that is commonly referred to as "Bombers Row" with Ramzi Yousef and Ted Kaczynski
– Eric Ru-dolph is spending three life terms in pri-son with no par-ole.
– Jim Jones, David Koresh, Kaczynski, the "nuns" from Rwanda, and the KKK were all dealt with and either eliminated themselves or are being punished.
– Islamic Sudan, Dar-fur and So-malia are still terror hot spots.
– The terror and tor-ture of Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo and Kuwait were ended by the proper application of the military forces of the USA and her freedom-loving friends. Ra-dovan Karadzic was finally captured on 7/23/08 and is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the law of war – charges related to the 1992-1995 civil war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia.
The capture of Ratko Mladić: (Serbian Cyrillic: Ратко Младић, pronounced [râtkɔ mlǎːditɕ], born 12 March 1943[1][2]) is an accused war criminal and a former Bosnian Serb military leader. On May 31, 2011, Mladić was extradited to The Hague, where he was processed at the detention center that holds suspects for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).[3] His trial began on 3 June 2011.
– the bloody terror brought about by the Ja-panese, Na-zis and Co-mmunists was with great difficulty eliminated by the good guys.
– Bin Laden was executed for crimes against humanity on May 1, 2011
– Ditto for Anwar al-Awlaki on September 30, 2011
"The Jews and Palestinians are being separated by walls. Hopefully the walls will follow the 1948 UN accords. "
They don't. The boundaries are nowhere close to what they were during the 1948 UN accords. Building a walled ghetto is by no means a workable long term solution in any case.
Many of your other points are also unnecessarily optimistic, but I'll refrain from addressing them all.
Ou est les atheistes?
Ton français est terrible!
"Ou SONT les atheistes".
Les atheistes detestent la guerre aussi.
The accent on the "c" in Francais gave away your use of Google Translate
TRANSLATION: GARY IS GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you know nii? Why are you using the familiar form of you?
@Johnny
I'm Canadian and spend most of my work in speaking french.
The ASCII code for ç is ALT-135.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI.
@ Doc .. I never took French. I took Latin and Spanish. I understand all but one word.. you said "Atheists hate (or detest) the -- war. What does "aussi" mean, please?
@Mirosal: If you're coming to visit us, you best brush up on french. We live in the only bilingual province in this country....very Acadian here. (Quebec is fully French, while the others are mostly English...once past Ottawa, French is hardly heard...Doc can correct me if I am wrong)
to answer you: aussi means also
Thank you m'lady .... I did go to France, but I didn't care for it much.