I was a Republican, but I'm voting straight Democrat. That doesn't mean I will ALWAYS be a Democrat. It only means I reserve the right to exercise my choice and vote from time to time for the person or party I think best suited for the job of managing my country. After all, I AM AN AMERICAN first and foremost and certainly above any affiliation to a single political party. I may vote Repubican again one day, but not until they Clean up the party!
Bush lied about WMD. They purposely confused the difference between the War on Terror and a war with Iraq. Those are two different issues.
We may lose Iraq, but we don't have to lose the war on terror.
Iraq is the biggest strategic and tactical blunder in our national history. It was a strategic blunder on several levels: we lost focus on Islamic extremism, swapping Saddam for Osama before we had that job finished. Iraq was a strategic blunder because the rest of the world understood that although Saddam was a "bad guy" he was not an Islamic extremist like Osama.
By blurring that distinction for political reasons here at home, Bush put our credibility into question at the international level. By lying about WMD, "imminent threats" and Iraq's "links to terrorism" our motives were questioned. Bush played into Osama's hands by acting like a Western Imperialist, or at least appearing to be one, which is one of Osama's most effective propaganda recruiting tools. THAT'S WHY THE NIE SAYS IRAQ EMBOLDENS TERRORISTS, because we played into their recruiting message, making it easier for others to believe that the US is the enemy. "Why else" says Osama, "would they invade Iraq?"
Iraq was a tactical blunder, as well. Having decided to invade, they underestimated the vulnerability of our Army, exposed like some a mexican pinata to random terrorist attacks in a country with a destroyed infrastructure and porous borders.
They didn't plan for the post military "democracy building" phase. They committed the wrong resource (the Army) to the wrong problem (democracy building). I was in the Army and I don't remember any "democracy building" training..... and it shows.
Bush chose the wrong ground, a cardinal sin in military tactical planning. OUr guys are simply not equipped or trained to "nation build" under these conditions.
Bush spent $300B and thousands of lives and all we got was our own "West Bank."
I want our troops withdrawn BECAUSE I support them.
Anyone who truly supports them would admit that committing them to the wrong battle for the wrong reason is just plain stupid. Keeping them committed to the wrong battle only compounds that mistake. That's what Bush did, that's what he continues to do and that's why we've got to bring them home.
Shore up our men, our equipment, our supplies, our economy, our resolve. ATTACK Islamic radicalism with the right tools.
Islamic radicalism is nothing more than an IDEA. It is not an Army. It does not live in one place. You can't kill it with a bomb. It can only be beaten by a better IDEA.
And the first step to winning is for us to pull out because: a) it will take away one of Osama's recruiting tools. You can't blame us if we're not there; and b) it will put the focus squarely on these killers, who think it okay to murder civilians indiscriminately and impose their singular belief system on the entirety of the populace. That type of IDEA is inherently weak, because it seeks to dominate for the wrong reasons.
We can expose and engage that idea, defeat it on the merits and encourage Iraq's neighbors to take the laboring oar, perhaps learning something about Jeffersonian Democracy, themselves, in the bargain. In the end, they have more to lose than we do. They don't want a radical, unstable, mess on their borders. And frankly, I think average Muslims and Iraqis will eradicate the killers themselves once our military is withdrawn and is no longer an easy target to blame for the HUGE CIVILIAN CASUALTIES.
If you think this will not get worse you are wrong. So long as we stay there, we continue to be a target. A target for bombs and a target for blame. Let's take the target off our chest.
WHY CAN"T THIS ADMINISTRATION FIGHT THIS IDEOLOGICAL WAR? Because they are themselves, at least too many of them, ideologues. How can they teach Shi'a to live with Sunni under a single government that respects both religions without endorsing one over the other when they don't believe in the concept themselves?
THe religious right, an active voice in this party, WANTS CHRISTIANITY's version of creationism TAUGHT IN SCHOOL, but stops well short of advocating that ALL religions be taught in school.
WE CAN WIN THE WAR ON TERROR, but we've got to recognize the difference between that war and the war in Iraq. BUSH is drunk at the wheel. Drunk with the power of a Republican congress and senate, emboldened by their majority status into believing they are never wrong.
Iraq is the telephone pole around which this drunken President has wrapped our nation.