I saw the last half of this--I'm not sure if he original post gave the wrong impression of what Dr. Phil's stance was. He didn't give an opinion about the war, but did give his opinion about the protesting. He articulated many things I've felt privately about the protests.
I understand the feeling that you need to speak out, no matter how unpopular, no matter what the consequences to yourself, that you have to stand up for what you believe. I have issues like that. But Dr. Phil talked about the rights of freedom of speech vs. the responsibilities of freedom of speech.
If I believe in something strongly, I certainly have the right to voice that opinion. But if voicing that opinion can be a detriment to the cause I'm promoting, that's something I should take into consideration as well. Is it more important to me that I feel better because I've "done something" by voicing my opinion?
It's a very real possibility that the protests against the war could prolong the war and cause more people to die. The protests give the regime reason to hope (and the Iraqi people reason to fear) that we will pull out of this conflict like we have in other cases. The protests give the paramilitary groups reason to believe that the more deaths they cause, the better the chance we will leave. The protests give the Republican Guard troops reason to believe if they kill their own civilians and blame it on us, we will leave. They have nothing else, their only hope in this is that public pressure will cause the administration to pull the troops out.
I have a hard time believing that a great deal of protesters aren't well aware of this--they are politically active enough, politically interested enough to have heard this sort of analysis. So when they say they feel a need to speak out, to exercise their freedom of speech, etc.--I feel that they do this for themselves, their own need to feel at the end of the day that they tried to stop a war, their own consciences, not the Iraqi people or our troops, who are put in further harm's way by a longer conflict and may not even want these protests on their behalf. Their need to feel they didn't sit by and watch is more important.
Like I said, I can identify with that. But I think if you're really more concerned with the welfare of the Iraqi people and our troops, you have to consider that not protesting could lead to fewer lives lost and you have to ask yourself if that's more important than your own need to feel you did your part to save lives.
