You should always be patriotic.

"Your objection to patriotism really only stems from one source if you are honest with yourself. Namely the Iraq war." No. It doesn't. My opposition to the Iraq war stems from my previously held convictions. I object to many events in American history. The Iraq war happens to be one of them. "We have never instigated a war." Now, I don't know if you are referring to all the wars we have ever fought or just the more recent wars in the Middle East. The former would exhibit a dearth of knowledge on American history. The latter could also easily be contended. "We went into Afghanistan because of the treacherous attacks of 911 and we went into Iraq because it too sponsored terrorism, refused to stop nuclear activity, and continued to be a threat to all other nations in the Middle East(most notable of which is our close ally, Israel) with its power hungry dictator. I realize this is a very unpopular position to take on this subject, but the fact remains it is the correct one." Ha, I agree with you! Yes, we did go into the Middle East for those reasons. It doesn't mean they are justifiable. "You hold up a double standard. You said that you would join the military to defend freedom if invaded by another power, but later on you say that if unconditional love for your country was eliminated you could do away with a very large part of war. Don't you see the problem here? Without patriotism we are defenseless against tyranny." I am not holding a double standard. Self-interest is not patriotism. Yes, I would join the military, but not out of patriotism. It would be for (1) Self-interest, and (2) to defend against the world against a power that I felt was evil. In no way is patriotism one of my motives. Without patriotism we are defenseless? That statement is entirely false. I will refer to the origins of our own country to support my claim. The coloziners of our country were from many different countries and all had various different interests. They did however, have one interest in common--freedom. I don't think it was the love of their country (which is what you define patriotism to be) that defended them from the oppressive British. They didn't even have a country. Hell, many them didn't even WANT a country. They were just a loose association of 13 colonies. Are you now going to try to contort your definition of patriotism so it fits this situation? The truth is, it was the very OPPOSITE of patriotism that led to the foundation of our country. When you accepted the affirmative of this debate, and using the definition that you provided for patriotism, you are saying that "You should always love and be willing to defend your country". (NOTE: Always is 100% of the time.) If the founders of this country had adhered to that maxim, they would still be in Europe--loving and defending their oppressive monarchies. Or they would be in the New World--still loving and defending their oppressive monarchies. Either way, this is not what happened and because there were people willing to be the opposite of patriotic, we now have America. Instead of being patriotic, why can't we be compassionate? Sympathetic to the plight of others? Interested in self-preservation? In no stretch of the definition of patriotism, can it be claimed that these sentiments are patriotic. Patriotism would say that you should be willing to defend your own country. Sympathy and compassion would say that you should be willing to defend others--no matter what country. We don't need patriotism to defend ourselves--the instinct of self-preservation is enough for that. To say that patriotism has never started a war is very presumptuous. Perhaps if patriotism was defined as "love for and willingness to defend all mankind", then it would be more rational. A country is nothing more than imaginary lines drawn to separate people. You may choose to love and defend whatever you wish. I myself, however, am more interested in the well-being of all mankind -- no matter where you happen to live -- than in the limited and trivial scope of my countrymen.