separation from the Republican Party. Whatever. I've quit. I've come to the
conclusion that neither party actually cares enough about the country and
the people to warrant my loyalty. Because really, is there any candidate out
there who can say that he or she cares more about actually fixing the
problems facing the country than they do about paying political debts or
just further enslaving the American people (and in fact the world, by
extension) just to build their own political power? No. Not that I've seen,
anyway. In fact, I would challenge you lurkers to make a case for any of the
current crop of republocrats. Of course, to start working on a solution, we
really have to start by identifying the problems. And since I don't want to
spend the next five years just doing that, I'll start with just one. The
Middle East. Well, first off, the solution to that is not to quit Iraq. The
growing success of the troop surge proves that we can help by staying there
and actually winning. History (and common sense) shows that politicians lose
wars. Military men and women win them. Liberals like to compare Iraq to
Vietnam, trying to convince the average person that it is unjust and
unwinnable, when in fact the real irony is that Iraq is similar to Vietnam
in a number of ways. It is a problem inherited from a former power making a
mistake, and then walking away. (Vietnam was a gift from France. The Middle
East, including Iraq, was carved up by a British General). The Vietnam war
was run by a Democratic Congress, where Iraq is being strongly influenced by
a Democratic Congress, but also bungled by short-sighted Republicans...
especially Don Rumsfeld. Military successes in Vietnam were largely ignored
by a hostile press, while failures and massacres were highlighted, just as
they are in Iraq. And just as real success was starting to happen in
Vietnam, the Viet Cong forced a propoganda victory with the Tet Offensive
(that in fact was devastating for them) that provided fuel for liberal
naysayers and defeatists to convince the American public that we'd lost, and
therefore sap the last of the political courage of the White House and force
a withdrawal. Now we have Democrats admitting that success in Iraq would be
bad news for their party. Liberals didn't want us to win in Vietnam, so they
forced a defeat. Now they admit that they don't want us to win in Iraq, and
they're trying to force a defeat there as well.
At the same time, Conservatives from Bush down were eager to go in and have
a quick and easy victory in Iraq... for some good reasons. I understand that
Bush imagined Iran being squeezed in between two strong new democracies in
Iraq and Afghanistan. He also knew that Saddam Hussein was a murderous thug
with ambitions involving Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical warfare. That is
a fact that simply cannot be disputed. If you see a man gun down his family,
do you leave him alone just because he's out of bullets? No. He was a killer
who needed to die. But in doing so, they totally blew what was a fairly
stable situation. Iran hated Iraq. Iraq hated Iran. For the most part, that
kept both sides pretty occupied. There is that bit of wisdom that says when
you see your enemy making a mistake, get out of his way. As it is, the
Taliban are trying to make a comeback in Afghanistan, and Iran is working
under the counter in Iraq and Lebanon. And they are pushing ahead with their
nuclear program. So what do we do? We quietly, without telling the damn
press, or the damn congress, tell the Iraqi government that they don't get
anymore holidays. They need to find any damn way they can to agree upon and
impose a set of laws to stabilize their country. And then set a date.
SECRETLY!!!. Tell them that they won't have our help to fix their damn
country forever. Tell them that if they publicize the date, we'll walk, and
just police from the air. If you want our soldiers to bleed to buy you time,
you stop going on vacation, and impose (at gunpoint if need be) order on
your country. Get it done. Use the help we're giving, or we'll leave. And
then we give the military the objective and let them figure out how to do
it.
Then what? Finally, acknowledge that as scummy as the Saudi government is,
they can be convinced to work in our favor. We don't have a more important
ally over there. Not a friend, mind you, but an ally. They're dictators and
thugs, and most of the 9/11 hijackers came from there. But they also have an
influence on the price and steady flow of oil, and right now we need that.
Anyone (like Barack Obama) who thinks he can govern without dealing with
dictators who happen to have an interest in remaining allied with us is
stupid.
There is one more thing we can do to take away a lot of the power these
psychos have over the rest of the world. Devote the whole damn country to
getting us off of oil. Completely. Anything, including Ethanol, that still
uses oil is not good enough. The only weapon that can really make any
lasting difference in the Middle East is economics. Make the oil
meaningless, and they lose most of the hold they have on the world. Then if
they want to hack each other to pieces, well, let them.
Big words, and I'm just a guy with a Blog. I don't have a political career
to think about, or votes to buy, or lobbyists to satisfy. Sadly, none of the
Republocrats can say that. Democrats want to run every aspect of your life
(because they need you to believe that you can't live without them), and
Republicans are far too hostage to the most radical right wing of the
conservative movement to do the country any good (you need moderate common
sense to do that). Both sides have shown that they will say anything to get
a vote. So none of them will get mine.
So... what are the girls up to? Britney Spears. Lindsay Lohan. Nicole
Ritchie. I don't know, and I don't care. Barry Bonds isn't important. Rosie
O'Donnell doesn't seem to have a career anymore. Oh, and Rush Hour 3 took
the top spot in the box office.
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