Remember when we knew who the bad guys were?

Now I remember this old cartoon from the 80's called G.I. Joe. It was for kids and the concept was simple. The Joe's (they were called that) would defend the world against the evil forces of Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization that wanted to rule the world.

Now one thing about G.I. Joe was that all the enemy wore a uniform that indicated that they were the bad guys instead of the good guys, so it was black and white, there was no gray area.

Now let's fast forward to today. Today we are threatened by terrorists who could be living among us and all we know is they they are all of a certain minority group. Its not black and white now is it? Most Muslims are very nice and kind people, but its this small minority that is making life difficult for them and the world in general in my opinion.

Now I prefer to look as people as individuals, after all we are all unique; with our beliefs and our values and our life experiences, we become an individual and not one of the masses. Now I do feel bad that people are being singled out because of their heritage or their beliefs but were dealing with the safety of the majority. There is a time when the rights of the individual has to be balanced against the safety of all but is this that time? Its a moral dilemma for me actually, I've always considered the rights of the individual to be all important above all else but if these people are out to cause harm to the majority, should we not do everything in our power to stop them before more lives are lost?

Now people are saying that the way Muslims and people from middle east origins are being discriminated against and they are correct in that, they are being treated like second class or even third class citizens but I wonder if these policies were in place back in 2000, would the twin towers still be standing tall?

I'm not going to defend the actions of the U.S. government because I don't think they are correct in their actions. WHEN THE HELL DID CAT STEVENS BECOME A SECURITY RISK? (I really hate that Peace Train song but come on) Does this mean, if the U.S. Government can keep Cat Stevens out, that we can keep Michael Moore out of Canada? However I can't condemn them for their actions. It wasn't the Amish who crashed those planes. Its wasn't the Japanese or the communists. We all know who they were and who they represented. We've been hurt and we don't want to get hurt again and trust is at a new low right now. Sort of like my feelings over (insert minority group here) because that taxi driver stole my cell phone.

Now I confess that I do not know all the facts about Iraq so I'm not qualified to make a judgment on that topic but this is my theory about why it was invaded. Osama is still at large and there was no visible target to fight. The terrorists were all in hiding. It wasn't like in the days of the cold war or even in the G.I. Joe cartoon where all the enemies wore that Cobra symbol. Iraq was an enemy that could be named, so it was off to Iraq. This was something that would never had happened a few years ago but rules have changed. The U.S. had been attack and they wanted vengeance and Iraq was a good enough example as any.

Now I honestly feel bad for the people who are caught in the middle of this. People who are looked at suspiciously because of where they were born or what religion they are but this is the end result of what happened three years ago. Personally I'm not surprised by this. You take stick and break open a bee's nest and they are going to come after you and keep coming until your gone and they will still be pissed and go after anything else that's around. This is the U.S. administrations mind set right now and I can't condemn them for it and the innocent suffer because of it.

Actually I got an idea. Maybe we can get the terrorists to start wearing those Cobra symbols from the cartoon and then we'll know who they are and the innocent can go on with their lives without fear of being persecuted.

My 2 bytes