Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
- Mark Twain
For in a Republic, who is “the country”? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant—merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.
- Mark Twain
It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which the masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
- James Fenimore Cooper
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression.
- Thomas Paine
Lots of rubbish coming from the White House now about the discussions going on in the Senate and House about Iraq…especially about setting a timeline for getting our folks home. Evidently, a couple of Republicans are siding with Democrats to insist on a timeline for getting out of Iraq. In my opinion, voting one's conscious instead of blindly following the party line is a sign of integrity.
I'm having serious issues with the tripe being spewed by our VP and fellow henchmen. According to them:
- criticism of the administration is unpatriotic.
- setting a timeline to bring back our Soldiers is unpatriotic.
- bickering over tapping American's phone calls with out following legal procedure (probable cause, anyone?) is unpatriotic
If the administration would propose something new, that would be refreshing. It appears a sign of the frustrating times that Congress finally realized there was no goal for going into Iraq other than getting Saddam, no plan to stabilize the country afterwards, and no fooking clue of the sectarian hatreds simmering just under Baathist bootheels. Our leaders were ignorant, they were impulsive, and they've rooked our country and Iraq's as well. It's time to end it. All our administration has delivered so far are empty promises of "we'll win this at some point if you stick to it" which wore thin last year.
Casualties:
3,245 American dead to date
23,417 American wounded (many maimed for life)
250? Coalition dead
60,000 to 600,000 Iraqi dead...nobody really knows the final
That's a damned high price to pay for ignorance, arrogance, whatever you want to call it...hubris? We could be there for a decade at this rate and they'll still be killing us and themselves.
What saddens me most is that Bush and Cheney took our national outrage at 9-11 and wasted it in Iraq. There were other ways to capitalize on our energies back then, better goals for our military. Maybe there still are.
1 comment:
With the passing of time, it becomes clearer to me that the whole Iraq war was way to extend the Bush family Legacy. His father sent troops in and had an easy time of it with Desert Storm. But, he did not finish the job. I think it was done intentionally to leave a 'Paper Enemy' for a later administration to "Conquer" easily. All the same advisors were there in both conflicts. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Hussein, etc. Now they do not have an exit strategy. I beleive the republicans never actually expected to win with the 2nd Bush administration. So, the troops are there 4 years longer than they expected. I beleive their plan is to just let the Democrats clean up their mess. We all know they will pull the troops out immediately, no matter what the cost. I don't believe they will make an acceptable exit strategy either. They will just start pulling them out and will leave tons of machinery and probably even some troops behind.
As far as being "Unpatriotic"? What a load of crap. It's just politics. I am a registered Republican, but I feel this administration has failed us.
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