I was listening to NPR on my way home from work today and heard a quote that annoyed me to no end. What the reporter was trying to accomplish was to listen to voices on both sides of the line of the Pres. Race in a particular state to show that victory may not be a shoe in for either Kerry or Bush. The first voice expressed my point of view that yes Bush is a little less then Mediocre, and though I agree with removing Saddam from power I don't agree with how it was done. I don't agree with the pretense that was used to accomplish this. Yes there were Chemical weapons found after the invasion the latest find was actually rigged in an ambush configuration, just think that could have been in Israel. We even have intel that reveals Iraq was in process of buying material from the French through a third party country. However thinking that Iraq was going to roll over and take being invaded, rebuffing colonialism is part of their nationalism, and that we would get any help from the common people after the celebrations subsided and life went on was a fantasy. The normal everyday Joe was use to having someone else handle the trash, so when something blew up it was blamed on the occupying forces inability to protect. So all this in place when reality and fantasy met head on and the exit plan that this administration hoped on bit the dust, they showed they didn't have a plan B. That meant that more people had to be mobilized, some from other forward deployed positions. Some groups had to be extended, some groups have been in theatre for greater than a year. This will affect recruitment numbers for years to come, which brings up other sore topics have nothing to do with this string of thought. All this put aside to fire Bush before we finish the task that we the people had put into motion could worse, far reaching consequences than before the invasion. Right or wrong the Iraq must have our support until they have a workable government and can police themselves. There is no reset button here if we pull out now they will still be without a central government and therefore susceptible to rebellion for decades, much like the nations in Africa. Also without Military protection Iran could walk right in like Iraq did to Kuwait in the early part of the Nineties and the world would be short of an Iraq. All this means more deployments to the same armpit more often in order to keep the peace and maintain balance.
Kerry doesn't have a position. All I've heard promised was that he would get our troops out of Iraq. He promises to upgrade the military, and so on and so forth but from what I have seen he's a flip flopper. I would have more comfortable in McCain ran again, but Republicans wouldn't back him if he was trying fire a republican. Even Wes Clarke would be better, scary as he seemed his image was closer to the people than rest of the democrats candidates. The Opposing quote against Bush just wanted people to vote to get Bush out of office. It seemed no thought of the aforementioned points were considered. Also he mentioned that lives were mentioned that lives were wasted in Iraq. I couldn't agree with that either, it showed a lack of knowledge international affairs. What we did was free a country from a tyrannical regime. What we are doing is keeping the larger nation of Iran from taking the Al Arab if not all of Iraq from said nation. The Al Arab is the only inlet of goods into Iraq. It was the reason for the Iraq - Iran war. Taking Saddam out of powered could stabilize the Arabic world if we play this transition properly. Also what was revealed, and probably why this transition is taking so long is the fact that none of the Government know how to be democratic. It was as foreign to them as the Arabic language is to us.
I tried to find the link to this report but I couldn't. But in the end these two drastic view point shows:
A) If the only knowledge of the issue you know is what your being fed by
CNN, ABC, and FOX, you need to do more studying. Pick up the Economist,
Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs. Star looking for Information in the
back of the rack.

B) Just because people can vote doesn't mean they should. An ignorant voter
could be as dangerous as an infant with a .44 magnum.