Let me preempt this with the fact that these are opinions of mine, it does not reflect a lack of compassion for our fellow man, nor does it extend out of the arena of war... here goes.
I am a realist. To me, liberal politics are ideology in the face of reality. They're good on paper and in the hearts of mankind, but they don't really work in the real world, most of the time…especially in war.
I do not like death, or war, or greed, or hate crimes, or an over controlling government.
I believe in giving back to communities, doing something, instead of just bitching about it. I believe in volunteering, and donating time and talents to charity, because even if you have no money whatsoever to spare, anyone can spare an hour a month.
Believe in hard work, doing your best. If you have a job, you have a responsibility to your employer to give your best while you are there.
I believe in being a good parent, being a good parent means setting boundaries, having rules, listening to your child, being involved in their lives, knowing who their friends are, having a bed time, teaching them morals, shielding them from things that are below their maturity level, being honest, knowing what goes on in their school, knowing their teacher, helping them not make the same mistakes you did, but also letting them learn from their mistakes, and making them face the consequences of their actions, all the while, loving them, no matter what.
I believe in responsibility.
In war...
I believe that there are times when you cannot be diplomatic, you cannot step into a battle and be half-ass. War to protect the home front should stop at nothing. War on foreign soil... requires you to learn the enemy. Learn their weaknesses and strengths, and utilize those to your advantage. Sometimes you have to dance with the devil to swipe that contract with your name on it. The advantage that insurgents have against some of our troops is they have no fear. They are willing to die for their victory. They have no restraints, no one barking at their heels telling them to be diplomatic, to use diplomacy in war. I laugh every time I think about the words diplomacy and war used in the same sentence. They use whatever means necessary to fight against our soldiers. And I guarantee you, if they could get hold of us over here, the families of the soldiers; they would use us to break the soldier, just as they do over there, to keep the "free" people of Iraq from cooperating with the "infidel Americans."
As much as I want things to get better, to wave a magic wand and make it all go *poof,* common sense tells me that no matter what we come up with, the solution will not be quick.
People say "pull out of Iraq." And heaven knows, I would LOVE that. But what most people do not understand, is pulling out quickly would cause the collapse of the entire area, and would be such a logistical nightmare. There aren't enough planes in the sky and ships on the sea to carry the manpower and equipment we have over there, back, in one fell swoop. And if we did that in large chunks, I can only imagine the steps that would be taken to cause a problem for us. People think we have huge losses now in our troops, HA! Pull out the wrong way, and our soldiers will be slaughtered. The money it would take for a massive retreat could quite possibly, send our economy not only into a recession, but a depression. We have no large allies to assist us in the economical or logistical. Perhaps when we have a new administrative team, fresh faces, then the world's leaders may be more willing to bring NATO back into Iraq, not for occupation, but for a resolution. Not because, as a human, our current leader is a bad person, but because as a politician, the world has grown weary of the American figurehead. In general, they believe the war was a mistake to begin with, and they cannot forgive us for that. The philosophy is "you made this mess, you clean it up."
Some people say "we should have never been over there to begin with." Well hindsight is 20/20, isn't it? Shoulda, coulda, woulda, doesn't get a damned thing done, and neither does bitching about what we should have done, what we could have done, what is flawed in the logic of beginning the war. You can't undo it, you just can't. So, shut the hell up about it already. It takes time to fix something of this magnitude. I am aware of that.
The problem is pride. And so many people are so hell bent on being RIGHT in their thought process, and indignant, and pompous, that they refuse to see past their own theories, and refuse to open up to a solution, to think how they could make a difference. Dissention in the American public has grown rampant, educated minds are so willing to argue, but not willing to understand anything beyond the ideology of a peaceful world, or how to move forward. It's a helluva a lot easier to point out what's wrong than it is to try to come up with a solution and it's a helluva lot easier to find a scapegoat than to take responsibility ourselves for the way our environment is. What, exactly, does pointing the finger accomplish? If a house burns down, what is more important? Accusing the person who was responsible? Or finding a new place to live, or rebuilding that home?
How can judging, and making noise, and going off on long diatribes about the corruption of governmental figures, and the economy, and moral corruption make the world a better place? How can we make a difference? I can assure you, doing anything, even if it's just sending notebooks to children in third world countries, writing our congressmen, registering to vote, and VOTING, makes a difference, and WAY more of an impact than sitting on our butts, naked on a bean bag chair eating cheetos,(shout out to Ron White) bitching about the state of the world.
I get frustrated when people who are Americans, do not want to work, because physical labor is below them, but they bitch about illegal immigrants, the economy, outsourcing jobs to other countries, globalization... put on a hat, and take your ass to the employment office.
*sigh* But I digress, that's a different blog.
Readers of this blog might ask... "What then do you propose we do about Iraq, since Iraq is the hot button item that everybody wants a resolution to?"
I propose a meeting of the great minds of the world at large, consult and come up with a strategy that everyone can agree on to fix it, or at least leave Iraq in a state that can be built upon, and not the headache it is at present. We have to have help from the other large countries. I know that this is being attempted now, but I also believe that we as an American society as a whole, need to become more humble and open to hearing other ideas and opinions in order for the world to take us seriously. (Right now, as a group, we are seen as lazy, pompous, arrogant, spoiled, irresponsible, hot headed people by the majority of the free world.)
For the time being, as much as I hate to admit it, we need more manpower in Iraq, more troops. Why? To squelch the uprisings, to help renovate and rebuild the power grids and lines damaged by us and saboteurs, and to sustain those numbers long enough to slowly begin a backtrack inward toward Baghdad, and downward until we reach the shores, and pulling back upward from the north back into Turkey, to exit. This will take time, more money, and more soldiers. But it's the only logical way to fix things. If we begin pullout without the added numbers to protect the free people of Iraq, we will leave them in the state they began, perhaps worse, where the majority is poor and oppressed, tribes will be faced with genocide, and the few and corrupt are rich and in power.
This will not help the view of America in the eyes of the Muslim nation, the world, or the Iraqi people. If we exit Iraq in the wrong way, and abandon this mess we have made, our safety here, on our land, will be greatly jeopardized, as well as the safety of European nations, Democratic nations, worldwide. We started this mess; we cannot just pull out because we are tired of it. We do have a responsibility to the Iraqi people, the nations around it, and our country, to fix it. This was why other nations did not want to begin or participate in the resolution of the trouble in Iraq, to begin with, but now that it has begun, the safety of the future in Democratic nations, lies in participation from NATO and other countries. If nothing else, we at least need the understanding and support of our own people.
We need allied countries to help us monitor the borders of Iraq, to assist in keeping out more saboteur and insurgents, to help soothe leaders in other Muslim nations.
There is no going back and looking at why this war started, it does not matter why any longer. What matters now, is that we fix it, and we do it right. It does not matter who began the fight, or who made a mistake, or what was there, or the oil, or the money. What matters now, is if the majority of the world, and our nation want us out of there, then they have to get behind the people who are willing to make it happen, and assist in making a difference. If that means enlisting in the military to help strengthen the numbers, so be it. If that means voting in a person who can soothe the world's leaders to get assistance in a resolution, so be it. If that means writing our congressmen every damned day with suggestions and not just whining complaints, so be it. If that means raising taxes, getting a job to help support the economy, buying EE bonds, or any bonds to help fund the resolution, so be it. If that means donating time, money or talents to peace agencies to help the social structure of the Iraqi people rather than running a smear campaign on why the war is wrong, so be it. If that means sending care packages to the future leaders of Iraq, the children, and sending school supplies, medical supplies, toys. SO BE IT.
We have a responsibility as human beings to do more than complain about the state of the world, and the war in Iraq. We have a responsibility to act upon the desire for a resolution. And we have a responsibility to stop pointing fingers, stop griping about why it began, stop saying to pull out the troops while not offering or considering HOW, and to start supporting a plan that will actually allow us to do that, even if it means an inconvenience in out pampered lives for the time being. Selflessness and humility is something we all could use more of. We have enough arrogance and opinions to fill a black hole.
It's time to start using our heads, and laying our pride and arrogance and emotions aside, and be sensible about the world, our place in it, and a resolution to the war in Iraq, and the apathy of our nation.
