The fact that over 3000 active duty soldiersdeserted(registration required for NY Times) last year is bad enough. But the fact that our army numbers 500,000 troops is even more scary in these perilous times. We are a nation of over 300 million people, yet we can only field a defense force of 500,000 in our army. That sucks! Of course, the fact that we are involved in an immoral and, IMHO, illegal war might have something to do with the fact that we can't field a larger army and that more and more soldiers are heading for the exits.
There are no people on Earth who I despise more than terrorists who kill indiscriminately. There are no people on Earth who I think deserve to meet their maker sooner rather than later, and, if I can help them along, all the better. However, Iraq and the Iraqi people never fit that description. Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, but he was a local, petty tyrant. He terrorized his own people, and they were the ones who needed to, finally, rise up and throw off the yoke of oppression. When they did that on their own, then I can see us offering them aid and support. But, to make that call in the hubris of our own self-importance, was wrong, and we are going to pay the price for that folly.
So, let's get our forces out of Iraq and gird ourselves for the tribulations that are going to follow. Those hard times are going to come whether or not we withdraw now or later. If we withdraw now, at least some deaths will be averted and not laid on our karma. If we are able to say to the world that our President was wrong, wrong, wrong, and that we as a country repudiate his arrogance and wrong actions, perhaps the coming problems in that part of the world will not be quite as bad. Our main problem, of course, is the fact that we had our eyes on the wrong villian: we should have been looking at the mullahs of Iran. That is where the true conflict is going to come from. Remember, the Persians have been attacking Western Culture beginning with the Greeks and Xerxes. Iran, or at least the leaders coming from that part of the world , have never been our friends. Think about it.
1 comment:
The US seems like a second rate power because it is one. We are much like Britain in 1900, when it had all pieces of empire but ignored the growing US economy that was already outpacing it. It took Britain 2 disastrous wars before it had to acknowledge the change. Let's hope the US learns to stop trying to be number one without quite that much struggle.
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