| I am not a pacifist. Do not ever get in my face or you will be one very sorry son-of-a-bitch. But I am definitely opposed to ill-considered war.
War should only be in self-defense or for a few other good reasons. I can't describe what a good war is at this moment but I know whether or not a war is a good war when I see it.
And, in the case of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, I knew, even prior to the invasion when there was talk of going into Iraq, that it was a very bad, stupid and ill-advised war that would accomplish nothing that would be good for our nation's long term interests. I spoke out against the invasion of Iraq. A lot of people spoke out against Bush's Iraqi misadventure. Some of them were even from Washington State. Senator Patty Murray opposed it. Congressman Jim McDermott opposed it.
In fact, a majority of Democratic lawmakers in the United States Senate and House were opposed to Bush's planned Operation Iraq Liberation. But virtually all the Republicans in that same Senate and House marched in lockstep with Bush's wishes-and they got enough fool Democrats to sign on with their plans to let Bush have his way.
I did my best to accept their decision and I hoped against hope that maybe, just maybe, they hadn't done anything really stupid. But, I looked at Bush and the people he surrounded himself with-and by golly, I have to admit that I looked at them with a jaundiced Viking eye and I could not see one worthy man and warrior among them who knew how to prosecute a war in the way that a war should be prosecuted. The lot of them had never been in combat, had actively avoided military service or had bamboozled their way into some sort of fake military service with the Champagne Corps of the Texas Air National Guard because their daddy was rich and had connections.
But, again, all those Republicans were stricken with war fever, including those dadblasted fool Democrats who had caught a case of it themselves and I, again, hoped for the best. Maybe Bush would turn out better than what he seemed to be. I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Then I witnessed Bush digging in his heels, I don't know if he had cockily declared himself the "War President" at that point, but he absolutely refused to listen to seasoned combat veterans who advised him that he was going into Iraq with too few personnel, that he'd better have some occupation and exit plans ready to execute. That's when that old double-talking fool Rumsfeld laid into everyone with his Lean and Mean military and passed down word, after all he was the Secretary of Defense and Supreme Commander, that no one was to disagree with the word of Rumsfeld.
We had a splendid, well-tooled military at that moment. It was then, the best in the world. Excuse me please while I shed a sad tear in remembrance. I have this pride of country and flag and glory that I, silly me, still hang onto.
Iraq was rapidly dispatched and Saddam sent asunder and our proud military marched into Iraq. Once we were there, however, sigh, Rumsfeld dictatorially took over and our personnel were moved to protect the oil wells. Not to secure Iraq's borders. Nosirree. Not to restore order. Nope. Not to make sure that basic services such as clean water and electricity were restored. Not on your life. Not under Rumsfeld's watch. You betcha.
It was at that point I started tearing my hair out on a regular basis. Iraq dissolved into chaos while Bush executed his cute little cock of the walk dance in a hitched up flight suit on the USS Lincoln and turned on an unseemly bunch of male right wing pundits to all sorts of homoerotic fantasies about Bush.
I must digress for only a brief moment to remark that Republicans have a very strange and weird sexuality that I don't understand. Recent history points that out. Very pointedly, if you get my drift. Tap. Tap.
At any rate, I want all this tiptoeing and tapping through the tulips to stop. Now.
Enough is enough is enough.
Stop this damned foolishness and bring our troops, our military personnel, all of them, home, now.
We need our military people home so they can get a well-deserved rest and a grand hero's welcome for the service they have rendered our country, even if our country sent them in the wrong direction. It's our country's fault, not theirs, they did the best they could with the orders and equipment and personnel they had and they had to pretty much follow orders.
At this moment in time, you know what the best metaphor for our once glorious military is? It's a 19-year-old soldier who was recently brought into one of our military hospitals in Baghdad with all of his limbs blown off. That's our military right now. No arms. No legs. Barely a will to live. Thanks to George W. Bush.
We've got, as a nation, a lot of clean up and fix up and rebuilding and reequipping to do. And, it's going to cost a lot.
And we have to take care of that 19-year-old soldier who sacrificed so much and we've got to make it up to him.
Now.
No matter what it costs. |
