April 17, 2008 Issue

“The withdrawal of our troops from Iraq would result in chaos.” President Bush

Every time I hear our President make that prediction I wait for someone to call him on it.
How could he possibly know? How on earth could he have the slightest idea of what will occur when we leave Iraq? After all, he and his administration have been wrong on every prediction regarding our efforts in Iraq since the invasion more than five years ago.

They lied, and were wrong, about weapons of mass destruction. As it turns out, we were the ones who have those.

Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and their associates lied repeatedly about our knowledge of Iraq’s weapons program. They lied about Iraq’s involvement in 9-11 and Saddam Hussein’s connections with Al Queda. They told us that Iraqi oil would pay for our war effort. They were wrong about “Mission Accomplished”. They lied about Abu Ghraib. The prison base at Guantanamo Bay serves as a reminder that civil liberties aren’t really that important to us. They continue to cover up our approval of torture.

They have lied, or just been plain wrong, about every aspect of our involvement in Iraq. Now they want us to believe that they know what will happen when we leave that God forsaken desert.

The United States is now as welcome a presence around the world as Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel. And our presence is usually as stabilizing as a hurricane. Internationally, our status has changed drastically since 9-11. A sympathetic world reacted in horror to the catastrophe at the World Trade Center. Now, a frightened world views the United States as an unstable threat to world peace.

The parallels between our experiences in Iraq and Viet Nam have been remarkable. Yet, from the beginning we were told this war would bear no resemblance to the Viet Nam debacle. Now it just seems like more of the same.

Remember the “Domino Theory”? Well, here we go again. During the Viet Nam years we were told that lack of support and dissension at home threatened our war effort. And we were told that we would accept nothing less than “Peace with Honor”. We can thank Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger for that one.

We have been out of Viet Nam for just over 30 years now and they have the 2nd fastest growing economy in the world. Iraqi’s would probably settle for electricity and running water.

All this deceit and miscalculation and loss of life, honor and respect in the world has been over our battle against terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not an opponent, and it will never be defeated. Terrorism has always been, and will always be, a part of our society.

Now, the threat of terrorism is greater than ever before. The economy of the United States is in shambles. Our health care and education systems need to be overhauled. Prisons are overflowing. Our military is threadbare. The country’s infrastructure is crumbling. Home foreclosures are at an all-time high. Hope is at an all-time low.

If we don’t pay attention the next wave of terrorism won’t be launched from a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan, it will be more likely to come from the heartlands of our own country.

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