I sometimes find it difficult to comprehend just how dense politicians (and most dedicated "grown-ups") can be. Ask any second grader what the problem is, and you're far more likely to get a meaningful answer. The kids understand what's wrong, while the adults run around with their heads in anatomically impossible locations. And people wonder why the kids don't listen to the adults???
It seems that the people who live in Iraq are being very uncivil. Well Duhhhhh! ... If someone invaded my country, destroyed the infrastructures, fired the police, disbanded the national armed forces, and did its best to become a benevolent military dictatorship, I'd be a bit uncivil myself! And I might be a bit reluctant to feel as if it were still my country, even if the invaders set up "free elections" and urged everyone to participate.
If conditions continued to treat me like a mushroom -- kept literally in the dark and finding BS to be in greater supply than actual food -- I shouldn't be blamed if I started listening to the local preacher/rabbi/mullah/evangelist-of whatever because I had no one else I could listen to, no other information I could trust as to what was happening, no other guidance as to what I should do. If I see life has become a form of hell, looking to find a way into heaven would be very sane action.
With no police on the streets, and my life-long enemies just down the block appearing to be arming themselves and having frequent meetings with strangers from outside the neighborhood, I would feel more than justified in arming myself (even better than I currently am). A knock on the door in the middle of the night is not likely to be Avon Calling ...
The invader is strong, and uses armed troops to "quell unrest" and "fight guerillas" and "disarm fanatics" ... so my options would appear to be retribution via stealth. Since I cannot or will not leave my homeland, I must fight the enemy(ies?) with what I can improvise. If I accidentally kill others of my nation, I'm simply sending them on to a far better place of eternal heavenly beauties. I seem to recall that, during one of the past wars America fought in, "Kill them all and let God sort them out" was a mantra often chanted. Why should this war be any different?
The problem is that A-group doesn't think deaths of its members is all that accidental when B-group acts out, and B-group is certain that A-group, and maybe C-group allies, are the ones responsible for killing its wives and children. Thus, before long, the invader is no longer the only
enemy. XYZ-group also joins the enemies-list, along with outsider-races U and V.
Given the circumstances, why is it that the benovelant invaders are shocked when a very uncivil war flames up from that type of tinder? How on earth can certain people -- supposedly intelligent enough to govern one of the largest richest nations on said earth -- be suprised when the civilian death rate starts climbing as a result of internal strife?
Enough innocent, and maybe not so innocent but we're not in any position to judge that, lives have been lost. Our wonderful nation, of the unemployed and growing welfare classes and poorly represented citizens, needs to withdraw. Will the politicians allow us to begin the fastest safest withdrawal possible? No! They have this notion that we would be tucking our tail between our legs and admitting defeat; in other words, the politicians cannot stand the truth any more now than before in our history.
I was taught ethics as I grew up; often through the consequences of my screw-ups. One of the things I learned was to "fess up" so screw-ups could be made right, or at least avoided in the future. It is time for all our politicians to 'fess up to the screw up, quit the in-fighting, and do what is necessary to bring our troops home. How Iraq handles genocide and civil war is a matter for Iraq to decide ... and maybe the United Nations, as long as no USA troops are involved. Do I expect the UN to actually do anything meaningful? Sure I do, right after the genocide a bit further south in Africa is stopped, refugees around the world are all given new homes and/or new countries, and children no longer die of starvation and/or exposure right here in the USA.
Our nation has gone from its status of "most envied" to "most hated" in millions of minds. We may never win those people back "to our side," but maybe -- if we withdraw with grace, do what we can through third-parties to give the people back their country in functional form, and vow to keep our soldiers and guns home -- just maybe we can keep the enemies list, which we currently sit upon, from being passed along to more and more people, more and more nations.
The war on terror needs to be fought where it began, here in the USA. Only when we can make our nation one which peoples respect rather than hate, welcome contract with rather than feel envy of, a nation that admits it is far from perfect and "my way or the highway" is particularly unsuited to international relations, only then can we win the war on terror.
As in so many other things, peace must begin at home.
