How many innocent civilians were killed to gain your freedom.

hi parated2k, yes I do care for the victims killed for the sake of freedom I have now. particularly, I'm talking about the reformation era in Indonesia from May 1998 until now. this era started when a series of economic and racial riots happened in some Indonesian big cities on May 1998. there were around 5,000 civilians killed in these riots. what makes it worse is until now Indonesian politicians still debate over the roots, the way these riots happened, and the possible masterminds of these riots. there is no legal explanation and consequences of the riots masterminds until now. these riots led to the fall down of our dictatorial ex-president Suharto and some other series of bloody people's protests on the streets of Jakarta (the capital city) before we finally entered the reformation era in 1999. every year on the month of may, most Indonesians will mourn and pray for the civilians killed in many street protests for the sake of political freedom that we could not enjoy before 1999. we give those victims the title "reformation heroes". many Indonesian public figures always remind the common people to work hard to build the recent Indonesia so that the sacrifice of the so-called reformation heroes are not wasteful. I hope everyone in free countries care about the cost of freedom they have now and not to take it for granted.

It's war, War is big and noisy, people die, things get broken. I'm fairly sure most of those you speak of would have been protesting during WWII. Hell, read New York times articles and editorials back before we got in to that war. It might as well be ripped from the Daily Kos or Huff-Po. In the words of one of my favorite all time political pundits, "history may not repeat itself, but it usually rhymes.

probaly not they dont use thier heads and never think about what it has cost to have thier freedom

I was born during the 2nd World War. I slept in a chesterdrawer in a shelter while the bombs were going on. My mother worked in an office and she just missed being blown up because she was late for work. My father was in the Allied invasion and he saw innocent civilians being burnt alive in trains. All those horrible things happened, but at least we are not under a Nazi dictatorship and my maternal uncle was in Burma along with other soldiers so there is no Japanese Empire all over the Pacific. And had Hitler won, I might not be here because even though my family is part German, not all of us have the blond hair and blue or grey or green eyes required. Sometimes there are just wars that if one does not fight against oppression it results in further destruction.

Great point. I'd love to see the anti-war extremists like Code Pink and Cindy Sheehan try to address that. My bet is that they'd be no different than the hypocrites who criticize hunters like Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin, but will gladly sit on a leather couch or chair, while eating meat from an animal that someone else killed for them.

I think we all, are almost all, will agree that any war is horrible. Many lives are taken on the battlefield and off when there is war. Unfortunately, like soliders who are fighting the war for the freedom of others lose their lives and so do many innocent civilians, that is what makes war even uglier, innorcent people are killed so that someone else can kill. I personally don't think that war is good, but I also don't think that we will never not have war.