I'm surprised by 13th Redneck. You spoke wisely on many occasions. I salute that. As I think myself that nationalism is very dangerous. Love your country... No problem with that. But when your love for your country starts to distort reality... We are in trouble. Because these things happen at the level of a country... And we all know the consequences of that.
Now, the debate about the enemy is interesting. Did the enemy change? or is it the same? Obviously, it's not the same. And this conventional unconventional status you used says everything there is to know.
In my opinion, the enemy is the person trying to destroy/dominate you. It's always the same objective. Now, what kind of convention there is?
There is the legal conventions we use in the modern world. Geneva conventions and such... They are jokes.
And then there is real conventions. Where the enemy tries to just kill you. Or kill the strong men in your side so he can dominate your people. I sum it up to the good old kill the men to get the women. You can replace men by army, and women by ressources/politic power etc...
And then, you have... maybe the unconventional battle. Where you try to buy your adversary rather than to use force. Example? Saudi Arabia owning a large part of the US economy... Holding the country by the balls. Or maybe China...
Anyway... we have enemies. Some want to kill us. Some want to kill us to take our stuff. And other want to enslave us.
This will never change. It's in the human nature. Men kill because of hate or greed. The level of hate will affect the level of death. Death or full extermination. And the level of greed will decide between death to take your stuff, or enslavement.
All these things are possible and sometimes even legally in our modern world.
So, I say that the enemy didnt change. Tactics change all the time...
And I speak about the enemy. But in fact, I was talking about the enemy of the honest people. The aggressor. Believe me guys, the aggressor is always wrong.
Now, whatever the country... unnatural (or natural following your local definition) group, whatever... There is good guys and bad guys.
This thread, is just the speech of a man, who went out of totalitarism to freedom. It's like a guy who took his hand from cold water to put it in hot water. Of course he thinks that it's very hot. But does it mean that you would bath in such water?
If You took someone who lived in Germany under USSR, where the women were raped, when they were throwing themselves in the lake rather than to be gang raped by criminal conscripts with criminal orders... to send this person to today's Afghanistan... They would feel like in heaven. "Oh my god, here, you just have to be poor, to cover yourself to the feet and to shut up of course. and you can live in peace..."
Doesnt prove anything...
I can say that France is the country of human rights... The country of the revolution... Of the lumieres. Of freedom...
Yeah, sure. It was like that. But it doesnt mean anything... They have more rights in Sweden. And we had human zoos in this country the last century.
So, I join 13th Redneck when he says that there is some good and some bad...
I'm an individualist. I dont judge people following their passports/uniforms/skin color or anything...