I'm pissed about the war right now. Those who think that plywood makeshift memorials and smelly marchers are things that in any way respect or honor our troops are best off not reading this.
I guess what galls me most of all is, not the brainless anti-war movement, but the sheer cowardice on display from our congress. If I was anti-war I would be mad as hell, as Cindy Sheehan and her ilk are presently. Disgruntled Americans put the Democrats in power, and the best the new congress can do is pass a non-binding resolution saying that the war in Iraq is not in our best interests.
Non-binding, toothless, and spineless. This makes me angry. You are against the war, do what you really want to do - cut the funding. Stab our troops in the back, give the Iraqi's what you think they deserve, exponentially more bloodshed.
Its ridiculous but true, Democrats and some patently insane Republicans (a Nebraskan Senator who has simply lost his mind is the most visible example) refuse to stand up to even their own misguided convictions. They are cowards as much as our fighting men and women are heroes.
The first hundred hours, as far as the issue that matters most, were pointless. You could give these idiots a hundred years, and they would never find principles to stand on.
Do it. Cut the finding, you gutless, useless, cowards.
I believe most Americans, including myself, are against the war NOT because it is illegal, immoral (insert your own bullshit touchy-feely platitude here) or whatever; but because we are not winning.
There has been an astonishing lack of leadership from the top, and it starts and ends with our president. I fear that the most recent (and long overdue) change in strategy will be far too little too late.
Our soldiers should have been given a much broader discretion in rules of engagement from the beginning; freedom to attack and pursue enemy targets - without interference from beauracratic brass and/or granola journalists who don't know a war zone from a bikini zone.
Likewise, they should have been put in charge of what they do best; killing people and breaking things. After the enemy was neutralized, nay pulverized, into submission, the nation building (which should have been planned out way in advance) needed to be executed by experts from the state department and private sector. Not by our soldiers. The fact that these cowardly suits still sit in government buildings, while our fighting men and women muddle through the thankless task of picking up the pieces (while still under fire for God's sake) churns my stomach.
Still, I pray every day (perhaps naively) for our brave soldiers, for them to come home after a lasting peace is established in Iraq. The most I can concede for the thousands that marched on Washington last weekend, is that they pray for the former. They certainly don't care about the latter.
