Lastly...

...another follow-up to my post, since the Iraq War came up. I was against the war when it started. I remember the "countdown" that Bush had for Saddam Hussein. I remember that night watching TV at work when the "countdown" ran out, and I remember watching when the bombs started dropping. At the time, I lived in a rural area, and most people were very much behind this war. I remember being home from work and watching, live on TV, the tanks riding into Baghdad. I was against it, and I remember hearing Howard Dean at the time speaking out against it, and saying what he thought would happen; and it happened just as he said. I remember before the war started, seeing how many Democrats voted for it. I remember some of the rationalizing about it: that in the moment, in the political climate that existed, and with the BS intelligence that Bush and Co. were pushing (and remember, Congress doesn't have access to their own intelligence like the White House does, of course), it, in hindsight, does make a slight bit of sense that many Dems might vote for the war. But even then, I didn't understand it. Now, personally, I am not a big follower of foreign policy; I try to stay up on Iraq and the Middle East, but mostly, I'm more interested in domestic policy. But, Iraq is the biggest policy fuckup, both foreign or domestic, that has happened surely in my lifetime, if not in competition for all-time fuckup. Not only has is completely screwed up the US with regards to other countries and our standing on the world stage, it's screwed up our domestic policy, both by massive and unnecessary spending and by directing our attention away from things that need to be addressed here at home. So I do think that the war is a strike against our Dem candidates, those that voted for it. But I do think that Edwards is on the right track: he's denounced the war, he's said it was a mistake and he was wrong to vote for it. I'm loathe to "promote" someone who made such a massive mistake, but one does have to somewhat take the politics of the time into account. Obama, of course, was not in the Senate, but did come out strong against the war at the time. Clinton voted for it and won't even talk about her vote; she also furthers the Right Wing rhetoric that the Republic Party pushes, likely in an attempt to triangulate her position with more conservative folks (it won't work).

Here is a good blog post that speaks to exactly how I feel about the war. I think that we need to get out of there. Yes, we should take some "responsibility" for what we've done. But we've lost more Americans to the Iraq War fuckup than we did in 9/11, which was and still is used as justification for being there. There are PLENTY of plans out there that Dems have put forth to get us out of Iraq. It's already a civil war, and it's going to get worse with or without us standing in the way and getting killed. I know people over there. I'm tired of seeing people come home in caskets, or come home wounded or mentally fucked-up and not getting the help they deserve. To hear the GOP talk about supporting the troops, and talking about how even debating an exit from Iraq is damaging to the troops, and then not trying to raise taxes even a cent, or even repealing some of Bush's fat tax cuts for the richest among us, to help pay for the war, and get life-saving armor over there to the troops- it's disgusting, and it makes me, honestly, wish I could get locked into a room with some of these fucking assholes. The new Bush budget cuts more veterans benefits, and cuts completely any new research and development into traumatic brain injuries, which is something that is common among Iraq War casualties. The troops don't have the armor and protection they need- the army couldn't even get helmet liners to the troops that could save lives and the troops brains; a private citizen started a campaign to get these to the troops, and ended up finally shaming the army into providing them after regular people sent large sums of their own personal money to get these liners over to the troops. How dare these yellow, scum-sucking, posturing two-faced bottom feeing fuckers even BEGIN to talk about supporting the troops? This war needs to end. There are plans to remove us from Iraq; re-deployment to other areas to continue to help train and protect the borders. A "soft-partition" of Iraq into three different areas (which is, de facto, what is already happening anyway- remember, Iraq was never actually a country, it was cobbled together from different more tribal areas and held together by a dictator). Biden has one of the best plans; unfortunately, he's not the best talker, and our high and mighty news media thinks that someone misspeaking is more fucking important than actually having a good plan and getting something done. This whole situation is fucked, and continuing down the same path, because "we must take responsibility," or because we are too proud to "lose," or whatever; it's morally repugnant and wrong. These soldiers deserve better, and so do the future generations which are undoubtedly going to live in the aftermath of these blunders.