I support my troops. I support my country. Saddam Hussein was an evil, bad, man. I support our activities in Afghanistan against the Taliban. Thank you, Armed Forces, for preserving, protecting, and fostering the democracy that allows me to say:
The time has come for us to get the hell out of Dodge.
With the revelation of the pictures of Abu Ghraib, a president and vice president who look like Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber as they appear - together - before the 9/11 committee (because they can’t get their stories straight separately), and a nation increasingly asking what the REAL reason is we were in Iraq in the first place, the time has come to finish the job. Let’s install a real Iraqi government, and pull our troops out of harm’s way.
Do we want to leave a power vacuum in Iraq to let another dictator who may be worse than Saddam up to bat? No… for then we would have wasted our opportunity to force Democracy on a country that has no real interest in practicing our form of government. But which is worse?
1) Allowing a country to determine its own course freely? or
2) Staying our course, even though it’s not as clearly defined as crystal?
You can’t force democracy on a people. No true democracy has ever been brought to a people at the end of a gun. It didn’t work in Viet Nam, it won’t work in Iraq.
Do I dare directly make the comparison? Yes… I do. This war will fail for the exact same reasons Viet Nam did. We didn’t listen to the people for whose rights we were fighting.
Will it fail in exactly the same way? No. Our troops will come home heroes this time, with the “exceptions” such as those soldiers who so offended our guests at prisons like Abu Ghraib. I truly believe that those are exceptions… but they DO exist. But yes, our troops will come home heroes.
While there are parallels between the war in Iraq and the Viet Nam war, there are distinct differences. This country has grown up and realized that, just as I’m doing here, I can support my troops while openly bashing their chain of command… or, should I say, the lout at the top’s lack of true support for his underlings.
“Huh?” you ask? Dare I say that George W. Bush doesn’t support his troops? Yes. I say exactly that. The lip service of “Yes, I support our troops,” needs to be backed up with a clear vision of what will bring our troops home… what is the endgame? What will make us win?
I challenge our “leader” in the White House to truly define for us what will make us a winner, not only in Iraq, but in the global war on Terror. Otherwise, do the right thing, and just admit we made a mistake, and start our withdrawal.
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