Another Political Rant (You knew it was coming...)

I have tried as hard as I possibly can to stay away from the media lately. To put it bluntly, I don’t know how much more of the bullshit I can listen to. I’m sorry, that’s a nasty word. Let’s try something else. Cow patties. Horse pucky. Buffalo chips. Moose muffins. Merde de vache. (C’est la meme chose, but most people won’t know that…)

The Republican National Convention shamelessly exploited 9/11. As if President Bush has been the most shining example of leadership and determination in the face of this horrible threat. As if the Republican party has a monopoly on patriotism, homeland security, and good ole American values. As if the war in Iraq had ANYTHING to do with the War on Terror.  No matter how many times George Bush, Dick Cheney or Don Rumsfeld look into the camera and solemnly mourn the young men and women who have "given their lives in Iraq for the cause of the War on Terror," it doesn’t make it true. And they know it.

I invite any and all Republican-leaning voters to really take a look at Iraq. What have we done to that country?

PLEASE don’t forget the genesis of this debacle. President Bush was focused on invading Iraq from the moment he took office. We have the voices of several administration insiders telling us as much, in so many words. In this respect, the 9/11 attacks were manna from heaven for the president.  (And I am NOT implying that he somehow caused, or allowed to happen, the events of 9/11 for his own political gain.  But, 15 months down the road, his organization was savvy enough to make use of the situation that had presented itself...)  All he needed to do was find any credible connection between the deaths of these thousands of innocent Americans, on our own soil, and the Sadaam Hussein regime. He threw the massive force of the entire administration, diplomatic corps, and intelligence community behind uncovering Sadaam’s link with Al Quaeda. And they couldn’t find it. Don’t you remember? They couldn’t find it.

THAT was when they dug up this whole WMD thing. That was when they began to suddenly hop up and down about Sadaam not complying with UN weapons inspections, which were part of the treaty ending the first Gulf War.  From that fact, they drew the conclusion that, since Sadaam didn’t want inspectors in his country, he must be doing something dastardly. Trumped that up to read that Sadaam certainly had stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, and was probably working on a "Bomb." Escalated that to the release of some intelligence from somewhere that Sadaam had WMD at his disposal, battle-ready within 45 minutes, which would constitute some kind of immediate danger to the continental United States. What????

This is what is known as "The Politics of Fear." The Bush administration purposely and calculatedly scared the CRAP out of the American People. Manipulated a constituency who were still reeling and shell-shocked from the horrible, unthinkable events of September 11, 2001. Please, people, don’t forget that, at the time of the invasion, the administration itself admitted that they had found NO link between Iraq and the toppling of the Twin Towers. With a weak bit of sleight of hand, perpetrated on a nation that was hurt, angry, and spoiling for a fight, they turned THEIR agenda into our agenda. The invasion of Iraq never had any more substance than that.

It can be argued that Sadaam was a cruel, despotic criminal dictator who needed overthrowing. I don’t disagree. But was it our place to do so? If the Iraqi people weren’t oppressed enough to foment their own rebellion, did we have any business going in there and doing it for them? Without the blessing of the UN? Without a broad-based coalition of like-minded allies to assist in the overthrow and share the burden of reconstruction?

There is a stock question that is put to the principles of any conflict. A woman contemplating divorce is encouraged to ask, "Will I be better off with him or without him?" Voters in national elections are admonished to answer the question, "Am I better off than I was four years ago?" Better off. Should we ask the Iraqi people, "Are you better off than you were before the American invasion?" What do you think their answer would be? They have gone from living under the suppression of the corrupt Sadaam regime, being afraid that they might "disappear" in the night, never to be heard from again… To a world where they could get blown up on any street corner on any given day. To a world where they are afraid to venture from their homes to go shopping, go to work, or send their children to school. To a world torn apart by the warring factions made bold by the absence of any real, credible government, ready to erupt into civil war, if it hasn’t already deteriorated to that point. And a US presence that promises to "stay the course," even as it makes preparations to hand a shattered country over to a powerless interim government, upheld by a slipshod, unprepared military.

In Iraq since March of 2003, one thousand five Americans have died; 1136 total "coalition" lives, all lost because of the determination of our "Oil President" to establish a strong presence in the Middle East, source of too large of a percentage of the life’s blood of our military-industrial complex. And Iraqis? Between 11,000 and 14,000 have perished. We don’t even know the exact number. The latest official death toll of the 9/11 attacks stands at 2880. Have we paid "them" back yet? Have we wrung enough blood from these people who had nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001?

And do we now reward the "Commander-in-Chief" of this abomination with another four years as "leader of the free world?"