You've failed to answer the question,what kind of a response would the type of criticism I asked about bring from the military.How would such a critic be dealt with officially by the US army and unofficially by the the critics colleagues?
I did not 'failed' to answer because there is no question. Criticism is not treason for US. May be it is for Islam, but if it is not for US, there can be no valid comparison. You need to look up what is normally considered to be 'treasonous' acts. But to initially filter out some more easily items:
Disobedience
Cowardice
Incompetence
Ignorance
None of them are 'treasonous'.
No, because the US actually INVITE criticisms, internal and external.
Do they? I have seen no evidence of that,In fact Ive seen evidence to the contrary.I know of people who have been branded unpatriotic just because they didn't have the US flag displayed in their businesses.So if such is the response to not doing something how would your society react to someone who actually openly criticised the US?
Really? Are you saying that in fact, the US actually imprisoned people for criticism? Last time I checked, Noam Chomsky roams freely, around the country and around the world, all the while spewing thinly disguised hatred for his country. In fact, the Pentagon indirectly paid for his research at MIT. Chomsky is a multi-millionaire from his speeches and his books. Chomsky actually called the Pentagon an 'evil' institution. Or how about Howard Zinn?
Can you tell me how many years Alexander Cockburn of
Counterpunch and
The Nation, a bastion of liberal print journalism in the US and incessant critic of everything conservative, spent in prison? The US Constitution contains 'amendments' and they are there from what? Criticism, may be? The US had a bloody civil war to abolish institutionalized slavery in the country. Sane people would call that criticism in the extreme towards an issue.
As a 10yrs USAF veteran, I do not have an American flag planted in front of my house and very few people in my neighborhood know my veteran status. The vast majority of US veterans do not openly daily flaunt their status. No one call us 'unpatriotic'. From my experience alone, I have doubts about your claim, which seems to imply that such labeling of people is widespread. Still, even if this does happen, how is it the equal of a death sentence for apostasy? You are treading into the absurd.
If you do not see how the US actually goes beyond tolerance but actually welcome criticism, you must be looking at your own society.
Your either not understanding what Im saying or your deliberately being evasive.How would your society react to someone who denied the holocaust for example? Would he not be labeled a extremist fruit cake?
Are you saying that labeling or name calling is the equivalent of capital punishment for apostates? I understand this better than you do.
If that is the case then why does the US feel the need to interfere with the affairs of other sovereign nations?Why does the US feel the need to impose its so called values of freedom and democracy on the world.Take a look at
this list of wars and military interventions your nation has been apart of,just read from 1950 onward.If as you say "The US end at the borders"why the need to "intervene" in the affairs of other nations.
Are you saying that the US is somehow unique in having interests in the affairs of other countries? What do you call the sponsorships of Hezbollah and Hamas? What do you call Saddam Hussein's attempt to unite Iraq and Syria into one country? Or you did not know about that? What do you call the Taliban's support for al-Qaeda when Mullah Omar were in full knowledge of al-Qaeda's global operations?
Yes but your assumption does not coincide with reality of the way in which america operates,they do not care for diplomacy or the rule of international law.So lets leave aside false assumptions and deal with the reality.
Please...The US is the largest single donor to the Palestinians, larger than any Arab state that shed crocodile tears for them. When natural disasters struck in Asia, the muslims there were asking, in anger at that, at the reporters:'Where is America?' Not 'Where are my muslim brothers and sisters?' but 'Where is America?' It is 'Death to America' when convenient but whenever, as the proverbial natural disaster sh!t hit the fan, US Navy ships and aid are always welcome and even expected as dues.
For the tsunami that struck South Asia, oil wealthy Saudi Arabia gave $10 millions but actress Sandra Bullock, who does not own a single oil derrick, managed to give $1 million. Catholic Relief Services had its web servers crashed because of donors traffic. In simple monetary terms, the US was behind Australia, Canada, Germany and Japan, but in merely a few days, the US military sent 13,000 men and women, two dozens ships and nearly one hundred aircrafts to deliver 300 tons of supplies. US warships also desalinated sea water for the victims. No one bothered to do the math on that. Not one muslim country was in the top 10 donors list. Reuters news tracking had:
No. 20 Qatar: $25 million
No. 22 United Arab Emirates: $20 million
No. 27 Kuwait: $10 million
No. 32 Algeria: $2 million
No. 33 Bahrain: $2 million
No. 34 Libya: $2 million
Instead, the reality was that the world saw how imams tripped over themselves in trying to blame the disaster on US in every imaginable mental contortions. Kuwait's law maker Walid Tabtabai said the tsunami was a punishment from Allah because the people neglected their prayers, listened to music and mixing the sexes. I am here in Las Vegas and my girlfriend is a dealer at the Sahara, where is Allah's punishment for this modern day Sodom? The two of us alone certainly deserve it.
The US also saved muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo. How many muslim troops did the guardian of Mecca and Medina sent to help US there?
So please lay off the hyperboles on how the US is a 'rogue' nation.
Did any ambassador or diplomatic delegation that can claim to speak for ALL the muslims in the world appealed to the Dutch government to extradite Theo van Gogh to a muslim dominated country to stand trial for committing a grave insult against Islam?
No,so what's your point? The killing of van gough was not sanctioned by any Muslim nation so again what are you trying to get at?
I may not be best friends with my neighbors, but if there is news of a sex predator lurking about the neighborhood, we would lay aside whatever petty differences we have and unite to protect our families, which is our common goal. I do not care if the murder, or should we say -- execution -- of Theo van Gogh was sanctioned by any muslim nation. That is merely an administrative rubber stamp. It is the idea behind the deed that seemingly unite the muslims of the world and this is where we see who is truly being evasive --
YOU.
I asked (post no. 340) if you approved of the death sentence on apostate writer Salman Rushdie. You avoided the question in your response. Why? Because deep down you know there is something amiss about the idea that a religion should have a death sentence other than the one that its god mete out. You hide behind a convenient shield composed of Quranic verses and the names of immam this and scholar that. Now you sidestep the same issue, which is the killing of anyone who disrespect Islam, by saying that no political and legal authority approved the sentence. It does not matter if it is about Rushdie or van Gogh, it is about offending a religion and if there is a death sentence for one method of offense, it is only natural that the same can be for the other method.
So because this demand wasn't met,the whole of the people of Afghanistan must suffer as a consequence?
The whole of Afghanistan? You must be joking. The US targeted only Taliban controlled areas. Most of Afghanistan were under tribal authority. When these tribal leaders and petty warlords united with US, their people were no worse off than when the Taliban were in control.
What gives the US the right to demand the expulsion of someone from another nation apart from the right of might that is?
The right of vengeance, which is far more legitimate than how Iran justified the mullahs' war against Israel. The Taliban allowed al-Qaeda to used Afghanistan as a safe haven for recruitment and training. Under international laws, the ones you claimed the US flouted, any acts of war committed by al-Qaeda can be legitimately attributed to the ruling authority as an accomplice.
No I don't mean a show trial,I mean a real trial,which is more than what is afforded by the US to those individuals it has been holding for years on end with no trial and no charge,it has produced no evidence against these prisoners and has infringed on their basic human rights.
Please...Spare US more of these gross exaggerations. I would like to see evidence of Salman Rushdie's trial for the crime of apostasy.
Does this give the CIA the right to engage in the
crimes against humanity that it has done over the years?
Please take a look at the list but be warned it is very long
Of course...The ever so convenient CIA boogeyman.
When thinking people see how you brought the CIA into this, they will see that you have lost the debate. Religion is about issues that are supposedly perfect, eternal and cosmic in scope. The US is an entity that is flawed and has a finite existence. Notice how I have always tried to compare Islam against other religions, not against countries. When you try to justify certain Islamic principles against the flawed and finite US, you effectively trivialized your faith.