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Friday, August 12, 2005

greetings all! i cant help but notice that a lot of people ask the same questions when they learn i served in iraq. never mind that we were attached to the special forces prior to the invasion of iraq or that later we escorted bigshots (and septic trucks) around baghdad. people shot at us and rockets zoomed over our area from time to time but the question people ask the most is "will iraq become a real country?" im sorry but my answer is" no". they are not off to good start and one of the reasons is they(iraq) have no seperation of church and state in thier constitution. our founding fathers made sure in our constitution that no one church could run the country. people who dont know much about the united states should know that some people here want a church run government but they are not a majority, like the radical muslims in iraq. here, the "bible thumpers", like falwell and robertson, urge viewers (followers) to vote christian and pray for an opening on the supreme court (thats evil!). good christians and others here in the u.s. feel democracy and religion in the u.s. dont mix, not because they are bad but because a church or religion often does not elect its leaders from the community and in a democracy leaders must be elected by the community. i feel sorry for secular western people in iraq at this point in time. i dont think iraq should become hard-core muslim like all the other nations in the region simply because many people are not used to that lifestyle(in baghdad anyway). all of this makes me even more proud to be an american (ie, no one here can make my wife where a scarf on her head,etc). we should treasure our rights and freedoms and know what they are. history is on our side, however, here in the west(unlike the muslim world in iraq). for example, the religious here in the united states will not be able to stop stem-cell research because this is a democracy and a vote will decide that issue at some point in time. they(bible thumpers) could not stop the telescope or the printing press and it is unlikely they will be able to stop new medical research. as far as iraq is concerned we (the u.s.) seem to have a "when in rome" attitude when it seems more could be done to help that nation. i was told by someone who spent time in afgahnistan that some tribes in the east thought the world was flat. the soldiers were advised to accept that the world was flat when dealing with the locals. we should all know were still worlds apart,...craiger/letters from baghdad...

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