Rus: Nope. Not my aim and not my intent. All I asked from you was to stop putting words in my mouth and accusing me of taking the high ground.

I simply retorted with “practice what you preach”. I think you throw certain terms around without fully appreciating how they’re going to be taken. The fact I don’t agree with you doesn’t make me a fascist any more than you freely exercising your right of free speech makes you seditious.

I was simply making a point. I think you’re wrong on certain points, but correct on others. However, you don’t accord me the same rights. Where you perceive I’m not “open minded”, I morph into a war loving fascist. Well, Rus, that’s wrong. No one hates war more than a soldier and I would love nothing better than to wake up one morning and we all get along and live peacefully.

Sadly, that ain’t gonna happen. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work towards it, but pragmatism and realism need to hold sway.

America’s footprint on the world dictates our policy. Simple as that. And I, for one, have been the first to say we need to develop alternative sources of energy (like nuke) and get the hell out of the Middle East. I’ve said that our policies there have not been successful and have been driven by our need to maintain our supply of cheap oil (which is why we conspicuously avoided doing anything about Saudi Arabia following 9/11).

Believe whatever you want, it’s your right as an American. But don’t hang a label on me simply because I don’t concur with your stance or your worldview.