I LOVE campuses, college that is

[oly884]

With respect to war, it makes me sad. I was an undergraduate at a place like Berekeley when we invaded Iraq. I loathed every day and the disrespect squandered on the priviledged.

I am a closet liberal, so bear with me. In college, being a liberal is a rallying cry, people do it because everyone does it. Crapping on the admininstration always seems the right thing to do.

With respect to a counter thing, my buddies made "Straight Pride" shirts during gay pride week. They are banned for life from the Michigan Tech Student Union.

I am sad the life is lost, I am disappointed something else was not undertaken, but I understand we are there and trying our damnedest.

I'll say it too, war makes me sad. I hate it, and with regards to this war, hind sight is 20/20. However, that does not change my belief that we should be over there, and trust me, I know PLENTY of people will disagree with what I just said.

Adrian, I do agree that being a liberal in college is a rallying cry, I see it every day. Between a fair portion professors, speakers, and simply the atmosphere on campuses, what are young and impressionable minds to do?

Now, I'm not saying that only the young and impressionable become liberal, not at all. We need a balance of ideas, that's what makes the US such a great country.

The one thing that I do have a problem with is the utter hatred of this administration. It's one thing to disagree with them, it's another to not have the slightest respect. I think that is my biggest issue with this "modern day college liberalism" I don't need to elaborate here because I think we all know what I'm speaking of.

And yes, it would be wrong if the roles were flipped. An example would be how Mrs. Pelosi is visiting Bashar Assad. Now, I can go on and on about how much I don't agree with her, but she's doing what she thinks is right and I respect that she's got the balls (haha) to do it.

That is too bad for what happened to your buddies, it's sad that society can be "harmed" by something so small and insignificant.

I too am deeply saddened by the life that is lost over there. Every time I hear about it, I do wonder if it's right that we are over there. So, every one, please don't feel like I'm blindly supporting the war.

Sorry for the long response with all the tangents.

[Cheese]

The problem is in a couple arenas.

On the one hand, some say all war is wrong. I will buy that as a stance though I personally think some times violence is needed. If you want to say only certain wars are wrong, you must have good reason. Things like this seem to be hard to justify absolutely as they are value judgments and not science.

Some times these same anti-war people say the US has an obligation to stay out of the way, unless the way involves the recent lefty leaning foster child of the moment. These people will never be pleased by the government, so I don't care to appease them.

I have taken a call from an old roommate who was standing in the palace, one of my cousins has done time in Iraq and Afghanistan. To them, all the men and women there, all who may still go and all who have lost their lives, I want to say my thank you loud in hopes of drowning out the rest.

Whether or not the right reasons got us there, we are there. It is a large scale disaster, there is no doubt in my mind, but anything short of staying the course will piss on the graves of the men and women on both sides who have given their lives.

As to illiterate collegiate liberals, I lump them with regurgitating evangelicals. You have more clout in my world when you have thought about it and can say why something is right for you, not tell me why it is right for everyone.

[mastacox]

I found this pdf file from the Defense Department very interesting. The numbers really speak for themselves- pay special attention to the total deaths column and notice what years they took place in. Not quite what the left tries to argue, hmmm?

http://siadapp.dior.whs.mil/personne...ath_Rates1.pdf

[dlbrunner]

The Iraq war is huge and perplexing problem. I think we will see a lot more fallout domestic and abroad that we can even anticipate.

The sheer number of guys coming back missing limbs is scary. I absolutely think we should take care of these folks in some form or other for the rest of their lives because of the sacrifice they made for the rest of us back stateside. We are heading for another generation of injured Vets (like Vietnam), I just hope we deal with the issue better than it has been dealt with in the past. In light of the Walter reed scandal I don't think we are off to a good start.

Lots of college students are liberal, then they get their first job, gain some maturity and decide on a path from there. I have liberal leanings on some issues, conservative on others. Most college age students lack a lot of maturity and life stuff and do really stupid things. I just can't give much credibility to some yahoo yelling at me about how the war sucks when 10 minutes before a protest he was probably shooting a potato gun off the dorm room roof. The guy has freedom of speech though, protected by the first ammendment, I just choose not to listen.

I really don't understand why we are still there though. After Saddam got caught, we should have bailed. No one likes an occupying army in country, and eventually they will get shot at. Kind of like the Revolutionary war!

[Bob98SR5]

How come those same protesters never talk about the # of people that were murdered there by their own gov't. before we arrived, or the genocide that could possibly take place were we to just pack up and leave. Usually I just ignore the protesters, but sometimes I will pick their brains. Like comparing the # of soldiers killed since the war started to the # of Marines killed on just one island in the Pacific. Don't get me wrong, I highly value the life of our men and women, (I have at least one friend that I know of who was KIA in Iraq), I just think that many of these kids protesting have had everything they ever wanted and they don't even care to know the history of our country. They just go with the now because they heard something from a friend who heard it from someone else who read it off of someone's blog on the internet. They don't even care to get the facts for themselves anymore.

my thoughts exactly. they only decry the deaths of the iraqi citizens because it politically matches their agenda(s). and to further add to your point, why is it that none of these protesters mourn the loss of the innocent people killed in the marketplace by indiscriminate suicide bombings by al queda and other internal terrorist groups? speaking of which, al queda is on the out and out because now the sunni/shiite terrorists are getting knocked off by the hardcore al queda guys.

it never ceases to amaze me how many of these college students do not critically think beyond what the signs on their posters say.

bob

[Texas Jim]

Until they have one on their own campus. and there isn't a thing that they can do about it.... say like today.......TJ

[anthony1]

you should put a sign that say " this should represent those who died innocently on 9/11....in case you forgot. "

Try going vacation in Iran or Afghanistan and see if they let you do this....that's what we're fighting for.

folks don't understand that people around the world look to us as big brother of justice...like it or not. We can not just sit still and let things happen. It may not be on our soil...oh wait, it was on our soil....9/11. There's poeple out there that wants to take us out. Sure we can wait for them to take some of us out first...( you can get in front of me anytime )..(wait, they did) but we need to take them out first. LET"S GO KICK SOME A**!

[Peter]

With respect to a counter thing, my buddies made "Straight Pride" shirts during gay pride week. They are banned for life from the Michigan Tech Student Union.

Thats rather humurous that they made those shirts. That should not be any reason to ban them though.

This is a knee jerk reaction.
Having worked in a campus PD for the last 6 years I can tell you that a large percentage of the time, an opinion that is controversial will get attention and protection, constitutional rights and all that crap. Something like the t-shirts are quickly labeled as a "hate" motivated activity. Now someone gets all butt-hurt and something "HAS TO BE DONE"

It's just the nature of a college campus... choose a controversial and POPULAR topic to advocate for and you'll be protected. The large majority of people are indifferent and nothing happens. Choose one that is more conservative and UNPOPULAR and out come the vocal minority that make their complaints. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[ecchamberlin]

Peter interesting choice of words, "butt hurt" for the people who would have an issue with a straight pride t-shirt. LOL

More intersting though is the point of view of someone who deals with this every day. Never considered the need to protect controversial/unpopular opinions on a campus but I am sure it is the safe thing to do.

[Peter]

Peter interesting choice of words, "butt hurt" for the people who would have an issue with a straight pride t-shirt. LOL

Okay, yeah I didn't see that.
Usually with most campuses something like this doesn't really get that much attention because people are accustomed to seeing it on a campus. It's only when someone has a counter rally that's going to attract more attention because it's going to really hurt people's feelings - that's when complaints are generated.

Nobody's feelings are hurt during gay pride type of situations or anti-war demonstrations. But get someone out there that is demonstrating anything that can be *remotely* identified as hate is going to get called in. Someone once saw an effigy hanged from a tree with absolutely NO identifier. There was nothing to identify the effigy and it got called in as a hate crime.

Granted, there are very legitimate calls that are made all the time but some people are so sensitive that I don't think I'd be surprised for whatever might be called in anymore.