God bless local media for providing me with enough material to write my column each week. Without them I would be just another crazy neoconservative looking for ways to impose my beliefs upon others, but luckily I am able to respond to their humorous quips and helpful liberal insights.
In Monday's edition of the Athens News the editor called me that modest über-patriot who writes an occasional column for the OU Post (sic). In response I would like to explore why he thinks I am what he really meant to call me: an immodest Captain America.
First of all, I am just a plain, middle-class, white male from Columbus. Sounds evil, huh? I went to public schools and I will send my kids there, too. I never had much but I was never in need. I started as a student at OU in 2000 and have since missed six quarters due to military service in the Army. I am a specialized studies major studying writing and religion and have plans to attend law school upon graduation. Basically what I am trying to say is that I am a typical white guy that for the time being resides in Athens, Ohio. What makes me different from others you'll read in the most liberal county in Ohio is my conservative viewpoint.
I believe in good and evil, right and wrong, and that some things are true and others are not. I have been a supporter of the invasion of Iraq from the beginning on logical as opposed to ideological grounds. I believe the ends do justify the means, in some cases. For example, think of that rock climber who cut his arm off in order to free himself from certain death. However, I do not blindly support all causes conservative or everything that has happened in Iraq. I even hate country music. I don't hate my country or capitalism, though. Perhaps that is what makes me such an immodest Captain America.
Perhaps though, it is my ability to not always look pessimistically at current events, as most Bush-haters tend to do. Take the elections in Iraq for example. Sure, there was a boycott by most Sunnis of the election, but does that fact call into question the validity of democracy in Iraq? I'll save you the trouble of thinking, in case you are a Democrat: No! Last November 40 percent of eligible voters in the States didn't vote. In the 2000 election 46 percent of eligible voters didn't vote. Would anyone call into question the validity of democracy in the States? Nope. Compared to Iraq, we pale in comparison in voter turnout. By most estimates, the turnout of eligible voters in Iraq was 65-70 percent.
Help me out here; is it my ability to get past the pessimism that seems inherent to Democrats today that makes me ignorant? I think that the war in Iraq has done a whole lot more than just laying the foundation for democracy in the Middle East; it also has rid the Iraqi people of an evil dictator and his demented sons, revealed the corruption of the United Nations and allowed a nation of people to have hope for the future, among many other positives. As soon as the Iraqis have the strength to fight on their own against the jihadists and the very unhappy terrorists, then our troops will come home, as long as the Democrats don't get their wish.
Most Democrats say that the initial reasons that Bush declared for going to war (WMD and the likes) were lies and therefore not good reasons to start a war. Well, I have said it in past columns and I would love to explain it to those who want a further explanation in e-mail, but in light of the situation in Iraq from post-Gulf War up until 2003, our only option was to go to war. This fact becomes apparent when one knows all the possibilities afforded us concerning the Saddam situation. Only someone with the wool pulled over his eyes would advocate that the U.N. weapons inspectors be allowed more time to search Iraq, when Saddam clearly was misleading and withholding information from them. Leave it up to Democrats and the French to trust an evil dictator and a corrupt leader of the United Nations over the cries of the Iraqi people.
Thankfully ink is cheap by the barrel. My God, what a depressing world this would be if everyone was as pessimistic as the Democrats.
-Timothy Boggs, a junior specialized studies major, is an angry white male. Send him an e-mail
at timothy.boggs@ohiou.edu.
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