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McCain
I was reading the paper the other night and read an opinion piece by John McCain coming out in support of Bush's planned surge in Iraq. With McCain as a presidential hopeful in 2008, it seems like aligning himself with the administration's policies shows an optimism in their success I haven't seen many other places.
I'm on another list where someone was critiquing the Democrats' position as obstructionist. They said that Bush has a goal and a plan for accomplishing that goal. The Democrats have been doing lots of complaining and the population has been open to that since they are dissatisfied. What are their goals now that they have some ability to enact change?
The image that comes to mind is from a few weeks ago when I was deflating an air mattress. It had a little plastic clip on it that I inadvertently snapped off. I immediately clamped down on the valve, but there was nothing to do. I could keep the air in the thing and I could probably slow how fast the air leaked out, but I'd broken it. There was nothing to do but deal with that fact.
Was Iraq a mistake? It seemed like it when we were ignoring the international community and invading in the vain search for weapons of mass destruction. I really want to support my country. I've got a couple friends over there now putting their lives on the line to fight this war. I've not ever put my life on line for anything. I want to believe that they're not taking that risk in vain.
What are they fighting for? To bring stability to the Iraqi government. Are they getting that done? From most of the news I read, no. Will they be able to get it done with another 20,000 troops?
I like the idea of Syria and Iran being involved. They've got the cultural connections to deal with this more effectively than we do. They've also got a pretty big stake in the civil war developing on their borders.
The last thing I was considering is how the American people would react if we just pulled out. Seems like the biggest effect would potentially be lots of Iraqis dying and some international ill will. We, as a people, haven't seemed all that concerned about that to date. In the presidential election, I could never see, "you left lots of Iraqis to die" as a politically damaging charge to level against someone.
disillusionedI'm on another list where someone was critiquing the Democrats' position as obstructionist. They said that Bush has a goal and a plan for accomplishing that goal. The Democrats have been doing lots of complaining and the population has been open to that since they are dissatisfied. What are their goals now that they have some ability to enact change?
The image that comes to mind is from a few weeks ago when I was deflating an air mattress. It had a little plastic clip on it that I inadvertently snapped off. I immediately clamped down on the valve, but there was nothing to do. I could keep the air in the thing and I could probably slow how fast the air leaked out, but I'd broken it. There was nothing to do but deal with that fact.
Was Iraq a mistake? It seemed like it when we were ignoring the international community and invading in the vain search for weapons of mass destruction. I really want to support my country. I've got a couple friends over there now putting their lives on the line to fight this war. I've not ever put my life on line for anything. I want to believe that they're not taking that risk in vain.
What are they fighting for? To bring stability to the Iraqi government. Are they getting that done? From most of the news I read, no. Will they be able to get it done with another 20,000 troops?
I like the idea of Syria and Iran being involved. They've got the cultural connections to deal with this more effectively than we do. They've also got a pretty big stake in the civil war developing on their borders.
The last thing I was considering is how the American people would react if we just pulled out. Seems like the biggest effect would potentially be lots of Iraqis dying and some international ill will. We, as a people, haven't seemed all that concerned about that to date. In the presidential election, I could never see, "you left lots of Iraqis to die" as a politically damaging charge to level against someone.
