Let's get REAL. We all spend our time talking about our military actions in Iraq like it's some kind of mental exercise with political overtones. We hide the facts with words. That's bullshit.
Here's what's happening. There are tens of thousands of Iraqis that ARE WILLING TO DIE for reasons that Rusmsfeld and Bush say are "because they don't want freedom." Can any thinking man think it's so simple as to be a fight between those who want no liberty and those who do? Are we that stupid?
Where are all the Iraqi Paul Reveres. Why aren't the Iraqi revolutionaries out there pledging "give me liberty or give me death?" Why aren't the Iraqi police willing to shoot and kill the evil, minority, radical Iraqis who "hate freedom and want to enslave Iraqis?" Why aren't the Iraqi clerics and civic leaders condemning the wholesale killing and resistance to American occupation forces? Why in the hell doesn't the official bullshit American spin from either party make any sense in terms of what we see HAPPENING in Iraq.
It's because the truth in Iraq is that the Iraqis wanted Saddam out, but they have no consensus view of what they wanted afterwards. They don't have the history or the culture to accept a Western style democracy, they aren't willing to give minority rights full protection, they aren't willing to empower women, they aren't willing to separate church and state, they are three different and opposing cultures and they are a rigid, old testament people that have a long history of "might makes right."
So get the hell away from them and let them find an equilibrium that fits THEIR ideas. And do it before we've made implacable enemies for a generation, bankrupted our ability to finance our effective actions in the world and at home, and before we lose many more soldiers.
The TRUTH is that real lives are being lost, many of them innocent and many of them politically naive. They're bleeding out as we speak and WE'RE the ones sending them to their graves while we don't have a workable answer to the question of why they're dying and what it will accomplish.
We can talk all we want about pie in the sky notions of "liberation" and "creating peace through democracy in the world," but in the end we'll be talking about the first or second greatest misadventure into nation building and imperialism in the history of this nation.
And yes, the Democrats are just as guilty as the Bush people. Leadership requires judgement, sound values and courage. The Republicans in this administration lack judgement. The Democrats lack courage. And us, we're too stupid to put in charge of anything, much less the greatest power on earth.
So our soldiers are screwed, the Iraqis are dying and we're just worrying about what car we're going to buy.
I'm ashamed of this country, I'm ashamed of us and I'm really ashamed of the political process in our nation. What happened to the people who built this nation, the people who debated and understood complex issues having to do with politics and power, even though most of them had little formal education. When did we become a nation of sheep led around by the contributions of narrowly interested and power hungry, corrupt brokers? When will moderation and judgement replace Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore thinking?
Screw them all and the disdain they have for us as a whole. |
