Debate: Marines Urinating on Taliban
Side: Stupid

You and Ben win. See above for the basis of my argument though. I'd still like to address a couple of points:So you have the moral right to remove them?Given the means to replace it with a more moral government and the cost of life were somehow measurably less than the lives a faulty government would cost, I do actually. That said, we don't have those means or the capacity to ensure a new government would be better, so I'm against regime change unless it is in the role of supporting a people's uprising; similar to what we did in Libya.Wow, you think your countries actions overseas are do to with compassion for the people suffering under dictatiorial regimes, are you kidding me? Your country is responsible for keeping most of those regimes going.Not most, but certainly some. The U.S. is responsible for Afghanistan specifically, and much of the Middle East. It is not as if the U.S. actively suppresses freedom though. Mistakenly or correct it is usually from the position of the lesser of two evils. A better question would be do we have the knowledge to make that decision for another group of people. I'd say usually not. I'm not talking about broad philosophical points though, I'm referring to the current situation as it stands. The fact is for better or worse we are in Afghanistan and have been for over a decade. There is nothing wrong with making the best of a bad situation.Oh right, you're just giving them the option, how foolish of me, you're just giving them the option to have their country invaded. etc.I've overstated the U.S. ability to pull the people out of oppression, true enough. But I believe you're overstating the innocence of the country. Regardless of how the situation began, if we were not there, had we not gone there, there never would have been incentive for Afghanistan to stop supporting Osama, covertly as it may have been. The fact is towns do support and hide terrorists even today and the government has all along tried to play both sides, getting aid from the U.S. whilst supporting the entities that use hatred for all Western Civilization as a springboard to power among the people. Is war the best way to break that cycle? Maybe not, but it's to late to change what has been done.I never denied they were insane,I just doubt your knowledge of the Taliban doesn't extend past a few CNN specials, what I find amazing is how you view your military compared to them, this is despite the fact that proportionallly your military is responsible for more death and destruction than the Taliban, or any so called "terrorist" group could ever dream of.Well, you'd actually be surprised. Most of my news comes from NPR while I'm driving and MSNBC at home, being the liberal douche I am. Where I get the news I base my opinions on aside, if the U.S. military were some force for evil this world would be a far, far darker place. The U.S. does have it's hand all over the globe, true, and I have no doubt our military has killed more people than just about any group, government or military in the world over the last century. Let's not pretend though that this is the U.S. on its own. Minus Iraq and a couple outliers, it is just as often France, England or some other super power requested that we aid in one of their pet causes, and we inevitably end up taking the brunt in cost and lives (lives minus the "enemy" whom we obviously kill more of). I mean, it's simple to ask the biggest kid in the room to beat up a bully, than blame the big kid for the bloodshed when you get called to the principal's office.I'm not saying that the U.S. does not mess up, and mess up often when choosing these wars. Put our military in any other country's hands though, and do you trust that country to do a better job? What would England do if they had the U.S. military for instance? When would they use it and how? Would they have let millions die in Darfur? Would they have let Iraq take over Kuwait? If the Germans had been afraid of attacking England because they had this huge military, and left the Island alone, would the Nazi's have taken the rest of Europe and eventually the world? Maybe, maybe not. What if the U.S. had said "okay, only Japan bombed us, why waste lives in Europe?" Let's not get carried away with how horrible the U.S. is. No, I see a morally bankrupt military force that has somehow convinced itself it is the opposite of what it actually is.No, what you see are kids between 18-27 put in messed up situations who occasionally and understandably make mistakes. It is the openness and availability of records of these actions you object to. You are judging the nature of humans, not one military. Any individual may or may not piss on the corpse of someone who moments ago was trying to kill them, regardless of the uniform they have on.