Iraq

It is hard to deny the failure Iraq has proven to be. "Our troops continue to fight and die valiantly. And our Treasury continues to be depleted rapidly, for a peace that we seem far more interested in achieving than Iraq's own political leaders," said Reid, D-Nevada. So why hasn't anything changed? It is clear that support for the Iraq War is shrinking every year (see polling report). Why has the new Congress not done what it promised in bringing an end to this war?

Congress has been trying to force troop withdrawals by refusing funding to the war without a timetable for removal of troops. However, they have not garnished enough votes to override President Bush's veto, so that has proven impossible. How much longer does our executive branch plan on fighting a war it should not have started in the first place?

What is amazing to me, and Mr. Tofias pointed it out in lecture yesterday, is that most American's cannot even see the division between the Iraq War and 9/11. Tim McGraw's song "Have we forgotten" is perfect propaganda for this... "Have we forgotten, how our towers fell..." No, we have not forgotten, but we are not avenging that any longer. I support our efforts in Afghanistan against the Taliban, but have we forgotten about our soldiers there? How often do we here about Osama Bin Laden and our troops fighting in Afghanistan? Not very often.

In my opinion, we rushed into this war without an understanding of the most crucial facts. We did not have an understanding, or we did not respect the fact, that a muslim country does not believe in our democratic institutions. We had to get the bad guy out of power, right? Well, we better start invading North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, should I continue with the list? We cannot force our ideals through military actions. We cannot continue to be the watchdog, especially when our motives are not as innocent as the administration would like us to believe (oil is the obvious reason for invading Iraq, not liberating the people from Hussein). Oh yeah, what about the Taliban... they are in Iraq and we need to destroy them, right? Oh wait... Hussein was AGAINST Islamic fundamentalists and it wasn't until we entered Iraq that they did. So, not for 9/11, not for the Taliban, we cannot possibly rid the world of all 'evil' rulers, so what for then... why continue this war?

I commend our new Congress for standing up to this war as long as they have. If the Department of Defense wants to continue this blood bath, then I agree with Congress (first article) that they should fund it themselves. "We need to get our troops everything they need," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. "We need to get it to them right now." What they need is to come home... right now. I have a former Marine, his name is Mike (I will leave his last name out as I promised not to use it) in a history class of mine. He served and was injured in Iraq. This actually ended up being the best thing that could have happened to him he said because 18 months after he and his friends returned they, minus Mike, were sent back to Iraq. Two of them were killed. He supported the war at first, but after serving he understands that this is not a battle we can win. Two of my cousins said the same thing, and believe it or not they are Republican (shocking, I know). After serving two tours in Iraq, they understand that this war has gone on long enough.

Twelve billion. That's the amount of money we are, roughly, spending a MONTH to fund this war. Our federal defecit is continuing to rise (see website below)-though the administration doesn't like to talk about this fact. On top of that, Bush proposes tax cuts!?!?! Yes, taxes suck. But they are part of living in a democratic society. Public services and government do not fund themselves, the money must come from somewhere. Wouldn't it be nice to take that 12 billion dollars a month and put it to better use, like healthcare, feeding the poor, reduced prescription prices for the elderly, curing Cancer, etc.?

I know that the Iraq war is a touchy subject for many people. I am in no way trying to put down the troops who have fought bravely and died bravely for our country. It is time to bring them home, that's how I support them. The only thing we can do now is count our loses and accept the fact that we were all guilty of diving headfirst into a baby pool. This scenario is just all too familiar... Vietnam anyone? I refuse to believe that our government will let this drag out 10+ years only to find out nothing has changed............



http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/16/iraq.funding.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm
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http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/