The World Is a Safer Place?

"Fuck Saddam. We're taking him out." -- G. W. Bush, March 2002

I doubt if it would make much difference NOW if we got Bin Laden. However, I do believe it would have made a real big difference in the beginning if Mr. Bush had not become distracted by his desire to "take out" Saddam and focused on Afghanistan and finding Bin Laden. He wanted a war with Saddam so badly that he lied and misrepresented facts in order to fool us and get his war.

So what happens if we just up and pull out of Iraq? We could probably withdraw troops over a period of say, 6 months. Each month replacing our leaving troops with Iraqi troops that had completed training. They already have a government in place and after we leave a lot of the anarchy should die down (there being no Americans to kill) to a level that the Iraqi troops and government could contain.

Do you really think that Iraq will ever have a true democracy as Bush claims? I don't. The Iraqis don't know what democracy is. They have never had one and to my knowledge none of the other Arab countries around them have ever had one either. A theocracy is probably the best we can hope for. However, a benevolent dictator would also work. But there will not be a democracy.

Now, as to all of the new terrorists Mr. Bush has created. They will be our biggest problem from this point on because once we do leave Iraq all of those "foreign fighters" will have to go somewhere other than Iraq to kill Americans. You can be sure that some of them, maybe a lot of them, will come to America. We will begin to experience attacks as in London - not as big as 9/11 but more of them. In short, because of the mistakes that have been made in post-war Iraq, we are not safer in the US as Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney are so fond of saying. In fact, it will be more dangerous than it ever has been. Hopefully our police and intelligence agencies will stop a lot of it before it happens. But it will happen. I wish it wouldn't. But it will.

Our foray into Iraq has changed the world as it once was. We are now looked upon as the bad guy. The boot is on the other foot now. The rest of the world has more respect for Red China than for the US now. That's a fact. There was a poll.

It would be easy to say "who cares what the other countries think?", but that really is a dumb reaction. I don't like being thought of as the bad guy. I liked it when we were the good guys and were liked and respected by most of the world.

If only Bush and company would admit that things are NOT any better. Only a fool would think we are better off than before and that the war in Iraq is going well! Their egos prevent them from admitting to a mistake so they just continue sacrificing more and more American lives while "staying the course". When you are on the wrong road, you change roads. You don't keep on going and pretending you are on the right road. That only gets you no where, fast.

Please, Mr. Bush, WWJD?

"We hang the petty theives and appoint the great ones to public office."
Cicero Quintus Tullius

I may be an independent liberal or progressive, but I am not a dove. After 9/11 I was ready to get my old Army uniform out of the closet (not that it would have fit) and go kick some ass. And when Bush and company told us that Saddam Hussein was behind it and had tons of ready-to-use WMDs I was all for going after him. I did not even begin to question the war until I learned that we had been told lies by Bush in order to justify HIS war with Saddam. As I said, I am not against war, as long as it is the RIGHT war. However, we are now in a quagmire fighting the WRONG war! We should have "stayed the course" in Afghanistan and poured our military might and resources into that country and the hunt for Bin Laden.

If we had "stayed the course" in Afghanistan I have no doubt that Bin Laden would now be history and Iraq would not be a training ground for all of the terrorists lining up to take a shot at "the great Satan". We would also have the support of most of the known world, allowing the organization of a real coalition, comprised of countries that actually have armies!

If we had finished the job in Afghanistan this country would not be on the brink of banruptcy, our all volunteer military would not be in jeopardy, we wouldn't feel like this was Vietnam all over again, 60% of the citizens wouldn't think Bush was doing a poor job, and the government would be trusted and respected because Bush and company would have no need to lie to us.

Half of the 1,700+ dead have been killed SINCE we gave Iraq its Independence! Bombings and attacks in Iraq have increased tremendously. Instead of ONLY 2 Amercians killed per day, the average is now 3 Americans killed per day (an increase of 50%!). It is time for someone in this administration to step up and say, "OK, we made a mistake, let's try something different". To "stay the course" in Iraq just because it would mean that "1700 lives were sacrificed for nothing" is more than foolish. It is criminal. Are we to keep marching our guys to the slaughter because Bush is afraid of lossing face if he does change course!

This country, and the world, are in piss-poor condition right now and a lot of it is due to how we are dealing with terrorism. I don't care about Gitmo. I don't think we should be babying terrorist. In Vietnam it was often said, "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out!". I DO care about what is happening to our country and our sons and daughters in Iraq and Afghanistan. I DO care that America is not looked up to and respected, as it once was by most of the free world. I DO care that politics are more corrupt now that in the last 100 years or more.

No, I don't want to make "nice-nice" with the terrorists. But I DO want our government to act in a more rational, reasonable, and correct manner about it all. Please, Mr. Bush, WWJD?

It Was the Right Thing to do After All

Reporting autopsy results today, Florida Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin said that Terri Schiavo "could not have benefited from therapy or treatment; her brain had atrophied and weighed less than half of a normal brain for a woman her age".

That said, it should be obvious to intelligent beings that she was unaware of anything or anyone around her. Keeping her alive would not have changed a thing. She would never have "awakened". She would only continue to lay in a near-vegetative state for the rest of her life. Neither the religious fanatics nor the current administration would have been helping Terri by keeping her body alive. Wouldn't those people have wanted her soul to go to heaven instead of being trapped in a prison of total dark, devoid of any thought, sensation, or memory? By allowing her to die peacefully, she was "released" from something so terrible we can only imagine it.

Let's Be Smart (for a change) and Cut Our Losses

"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?" --Will Rogers

Yes, why can't Mr. Bush get us out of this mess? There have now been over 1,700 Americans killed-in-action and over 12,700 Americans wounded-in-action. This number of wounded does not include the more than 12,000 that have been treated for illness, non-combat injury and combat injury.

No one knows what the number of wrecked lives and marriages will be when this mistake is over. Our VA hospitals can't handle the number of mental cases resulting from men and women seeing war up close and personal. Sherman was right, war is hell. So why do we keep sending America's future to hell? Why are we repeating the mistakes of Vietnam? Didn't we learn anything from that fiasco?

There is only one thing that should be done now. Pull out of Iraq. Bring all of our troops home NOW. Leave Iraq to the Iraqis, they will be much better off without our "help".

I am a Vietnam veteran and as patriotic as the next man but I am against this illegal war which was started based upon the lies of this administration. We should all question our elected officials. Put them on the hot seat. Albert Einstein said, "Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."