Driving home from work the other day I exit the offramp into a sea of disillusioned freaks with handmade signs of various anti-war slogans. I must admit that the cleverly coined phrases I saw so eloquently penned with magic marker on construction paper had to make some fourth or fifth grader feel good about themselves.
What do these people hope to accomplish? Do they honestly think that their actions carry any consequence? Are they targeting the idiot redneck who doesn't have a television, radio, or computer so that he can see the sign and say to himself, "Uh, wow...I never thought of it that way. 'In for the wrong reason Bush commits treason.' It makes a whole lotta sense. I mean it rhymes so it must be true."
President Bush, with an entire cabinet and multiple committees of lifelong military servicemen and women have come to the decision to send more troops to Iraq but these yahoos here with the signs - who have never even served time in a Boy Scout troop much less a real branch of the military - seem to think he is wrong and they have the solution. Let's just pull out and leave immediately.
My brother is in Iraq now fulfilling his Marine Corp service. The general consensus is that, of course, they would all like to come home but that their overwhelming desire is to finish what was started. They want to know that their service filled a need and furthered the safety and protection of America. They see the good that is being done. Regardless of what the media tells us, the people of Iraq come up to our service men and women daily and thank them for all that they have done and continue to do.
Did Iraq have the mass quantities of functioning WMD's that was initially assumed? No, but there was proof of use of gases on Iraqis and there was ample evidence of moving laboratories working on the enriching of uranium. Was Saddam Hussein a genocidal maniac that gassed his own countrymen? Yes. Did Saddam Hussein order senseless murders in "human paper shredders"? Yes. Was he ever, even down to his final hours, remorseful in the least for the pain, suffering, torture, and murders caused by his will? No.
The United States went in under wrongly assumed data, that is true. Some would even contend that it was under, willfully mislead data. History helps us recall that the United States was also under similar circumstances prior to World War II. The reports were that Hitler was rounding up Jews and placing them in concentration camps. Wide and various were the rumors and stories emanating as to what occured in these camps. The U.S. government knew the atrocities yet because they feared the voice of the people saying, "Am I my brother's keeper?" We let it continue until there was an imminent threat. The attack on Pearl Harbor forced us to enter the war.
Is it possible that the imminent threat phrase was thrown out there to the American public regarding the status of Iraq simply as a means to appease the simple-minded public to sway public opinion to let us enter and remove a Hussein before he became a Hitler. And if so, is the lie really that bad? And looking at the current state of global politics, with Iran thumbing their noses at us while continuing to further their uranium enrichment facilities and North Korea and Russia extending support...is it so bad that we now have established bases in the neighboring country of Iraq?
We are now playing a game of war chess and we are three steps ahead of our enemies. As long as Israel doesn't do anything crazy to Iraq without consulting us first, we are in good position to be able to launch or counter should the need ever arise. Hopefully with the new head of the United Nations real sanctions and action can take place and they will not be shackled by the financial politics of the surrendering Frenchies, industry driven Germans, and Commie regressing Russians.
My issue is not with those who oppose the war. I know I have branched on many tangents in this. My initial irritation was with the magic marker Democrats who oppose anything Bush proposed while offering their best suggestion: Pull all troops out within six months. We are in too deep to bail out now. The administration has admitted to mistakes. This is war. Mistakes will be made. The cardboard signs will change nothing...go home, watch CNN, and write to your local governmental leaders with suggestions or opinions. "Those who hold signs also wait in unemployment lines." Oh yeah, my little niece in the first grade wrote that. Maybe you can call her for your future campaigns.
