Iraq: The Damnation of America

I heard a conservative on the Ed Schultz show say today that while he disagreed with the Iraq war and did not vote for Bush, he thinks that pulling out the troops is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. He felt we should be sending in enough troops (100K or more) to get the job done and get out as quickly as possible.

I got to thinking, and I don't think that is necessarily a bad idea. General Shinseki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shinseki) felt we needed several hundred thousand troops to get the job done right and predicted exactly what we have today if we didn't. The only problem with this solution today is, because enlistments have been way down and we've exhausted the reserves and the N.G. and we've effectively lost 20K soldiers (killed and wounded), it would require a DRAFT. And if a draft is instated before the elections, the republican lawmakers up for re-election are guaranteed to be out of a job. So a draft will never happen (until after 2006 when it will be too late) because the repubs in congress won't allow it.

So we are DAMNED if we DO.

The young conservative who called in who thought we should be sending in so many more troops was also former soldier who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and he is a member of the National Guard. He felt that while Iraq was NOT a part of the war on terror and had NOTHING to do with terrorism, IT CERTAINLY is now. The Bush regime has created a terrorist FACTORY and if we don't fix it, we can surely count on being attacked. If we do pull out, the first order of business ought to be securing the borders, securing the ports and preparing for an attack, because one will very likely come if we leave Iraq in the state that it is. Again, I am compelled by this argument. The problem is that Homeland Security was just a facility to pay Bush-friendly contractors and give high salaries to Bush cronies... so we have no organization that could prepare us for that scenario. We've seen how defenseless we are from the response to the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We know that Homeland Security will do NOTHING to either help prepare for or recover from a terrorist attack on this country.

So we are DAMNED if we DON'T.

What is the solution? Our Democratic leaders are forcing the Bush administration to provide a plan for the DO situation, since it seems they are hell-bent on staying in Iraq. However, because of what that means (DRAFT) the Bush administration isn't providing any info. And Democratic law makers have tried to force the draft issue in Congress to no avail, as they do not control the legislative agenda. The Democratic leaders have also tried to force the issue of a pull-out, but again, blocked by the admin or by congress.

At this point, it is up to the American people to present this case, the fact that we are DAMNED either way, to our lawmakers and force them to choose. Not choosing, the road the administration is taking us down, is the road to destruction. We must make a decision, and we must execute it in its EARNEST otherwise, the worst consequences await us.

Create them if we have to....