When I hear President Bush ask Congress to “Support the Troops," I first nod in agreement out of respect for our volunteer army. Then, I look at the bigger picture and feel betrayed and manipulated by the president's use of a patriotic phrase for political purposes.
By relying on America ’s overabundance of pride and patriotism, Mr. Bush is “cloaking" himself in red, white and blue to deliberately misdirect our focus from the unwanted invasion and occupation of Iraq and the massive fraud and corruption surrounding the rebuilding programs.
Some have called America ’s war in Iraq illegal because UN Resolution 1441 did not authorize an invasion. Patience and a more objective review of pre-war intelligence would have proven there were no WMD, no Al Qaeda connection and saved over 3,000 American lives, tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilian lives and billions of US taxpayer dollars.
Consider this; did the President, “Support the Troops" by providing them with body armor, or protect their Humvees from Improvised Explosive Devices or ensure that the best patient care was provided to injured Iraq Veterans at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC?
Not only was there not enough body armor, but, our troops were asking mom and dad to buy and ship them the body armor they needed to save their lives. Hooray for the ingenuity and perseverance of our volunteer Army!
It’s time to rub our eyes, clear our vision and take a look at the forest. Our focus should not be on whether we support the troops, because that is not in question; the real issues are whether we support; the deliberate manipulation of intelligence, the bullying, shoot first and don’t ask questions policies of the current administration and whether we are willing to spend untold billions of additional dollars in support of “Texas Swagger."
Has the war in Iraq made America safer from a terrorist attack? I don’t think so. Suicide bombing hasn’t subsided in Iraq and one might see the day when an army of Iraqi orphans travel to America on student visas seeking revenge for the loss of their non-combatant parents.
In my opinion, the best way to “Support the Troops" is to bring them home and stop asking them to quell a civil war they were not prepared to fight and most likely cannot win.
It’s just too obvious that the Shiites, Kurds and Sunni’s share no vision of a unified nation; that they won’t fight for democracy; yet they will trigger a detonator and blow themselves up for Islam. We just don’t have a military response for these realities.
We need to realize that shock and awe, and the American Bill of Rights do not a recipe, or much less, an appetizer make for converting Muslims to democracy?
Let’s exit Iraq , regroup, and redirect our military forces to Afghanistan so we can get the 9/11 ---tard.
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