What Do I Think?

I realize that in the writing that I have done, I have left out how I actually feel about some issues, most notably, the conflict in Iraq. So, let me clarify. I was never comfortable with invading Iraq in the first place. That's not to say that I was a vocal opponent, but I didn't think it was the best idea. I'm not just saying that war is horrible, and should be avoided whenever possible, though that is true, I'm also saying that I did not feel that invading Iraq was really in the best interest of the USA. I'm also not part of the "Bush lied" crowd, pretty much everyone thought that Saddam either already had, or would soon have, WMD's. It's just that I did not feel that Iraq posed the greatest threat to America in the world. I'm not going to deny that some good things have come out of the invasion of Iraq (and before I hear about that from anyone, the word invasion is not used here to be negative, just to be literal), nobody in their right mind misses Saddam, but the fact of the matter is that this action has been grossly mishandled. I hesitate to call it a war, as, in a war there is a clearly defined enemy army, and if this were truly a war, our military would have crushed the enemy, and this all would have been over a few days after it started. What we have now is little more than a glorified police action. Our troops have performed brilliantly, but planning has been lacking at best, as usually happens when politicians try to run military operations. While I still don't like our troops being there, I also don't think that just yanking them out without winning is the best thing to do. We need, and have needed for some time, a new strategy, but the biggest thing that we need to happen is for the Iraqi people to stand up and fight for their own freedom, instead of killing each other. We cannot win this for them, and if they will not stand up and fight, there is little left for us to do except leave. There is a very real danger that if we pull out and Iraq is not stable, it will increase the risk of terrorist attacks here at home, but on the other hand, if we bring our troops home, and spend the hundreds of billions of dollars that the Iraq debacle is sucking out of our economy on securing the border and other anti-terrorist causes, it could even itself out. I think that it has become clear that the Bush administration is going to drag this out until the end of the current term and dump it in the lap of the incoming President, so I guess we need to hear some realistic plans for dealing with the mess. Candidates? Republicans? Democrats? Anyone???