April 18, 2007

Tuesday Peace Blogging on Wednesday

I was going to post this yesterday, for a off-topic Tuesday Topic with Blogs For Peace. Because of the tragic event this week, I postponed this post until today.

Peace for Iraq? - That, it would seem, is up to the Iraqi people. Am I wrong? Tell me!

End the War in Iraq? - We are not at war, we are occupiers of a foreign land. There is a civil/religious war being waged in Iraq. The average American citizen has nothing to gain or lose from our current actions in Iraq, other than selfish pride.

We went into Iraq and removed an evil dictator, when our own military, intelligence, and allies advised against it. The evil dictator was already contained, and containment was a better option than the violent history of the region. Our leaders didn't listen, and now there is more violence, bloodshed, and murder than when that evil dictator was in power. He was powerless beyond his own borders. Our leaders had ulterior motives. The war and current occupation has been a monumental failure.

Our leaders are now the war criminals in Iraq. Saddam wasn't even in tried in a World Court, we let his political opposition have him, try him, and execute him. It was a sham. As phony as our current president executive misleader.

Now, let's take a look at the current situation and analyze it.

The majority of Americans want peace in Iraq and they want to bring the troops home, even those in the military, and right-wingers that once supported this conflict.

Well, since I'm always playing the devil's advocate, I have to say "Whoa, not so fast!".

We have to be aware, bringing the troops home will NOT bring peace to Iraq. If we leave right away, there is going to be a huge humanitarian crisis in Iraq. I foresee escalation of the civil and religious conflicts, and genocide, if we leave now. The massacres in the streets would continue, but at a much more rapid pace. We are responsible for the current state of affairs in Iraq.

What are are options?

There doesn't seem to be any. The "Stay the Course" plan has steered the "Ship of Freedom" right into a huge iceberg, and all we can do is bale water, but we need a lot more manpower to bale fast enough, so it is sinking fast. There is not enough manpower. Even with the surge, which has been little more than a tiny bandage on a huge festering wound.

I left the following comment, as an analogy of the situation, on one of Morning Martini's blog posts:
"A big building is on fire, and we are trying to use squirt guns to put out the fire. The fire is getting worse, so we use more squirt guns and manage to put out the fire in a little corner of the building, but the rest of the building is still burning out of control, and the corner where we put out the fire will soon reignite from the fire that still burning. We need a new strategy, or we need to just let the fire burn itself out, but the little bit we are doing is not ever going be successful."

Our phony leadership in this country has created a no-win situation in Iraq? What are the options now? Do you want to get beat up with a baseball bat or a lead pipe? (Lead Pipe? HHMM, a little too much influence from this blog.)

The House and Senate has offered a slow withdrawal option with continued funding for this occupation, but our phony presidential failure rejects those options, saying he will punish the troops if we don't give him the support that only he wants, a bottomless hole which to throw billions of dollars, and no withdrawal timeline. He will not negotiate. There is no common sense in his option. Should we stay where we are not wanted, with limited resources, wasting our time and money? We need smarter solutions.

Stayed tuned - In a future post, I will try to come up with alternatives to make receiving our ass-whooping a little less painful.

to be continued.......very soon.....really

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good morning,

ouffff this is so complex, I'm dizzy just reading about it. This is how knowledgeable I am with the topic.

I always believed that our troops were there because the people of the country were being cruel to each other therefore, we went there to keep peace amongst the people . Obviously it has escaladed. Hatred builts up to more hatred, right?

The countries' troops who are there, what do they have to gain? (told you, I'm not knowledgeable in this department. I'm so impressed with you guys who know so much.) This has become WW3. Everybody is involved and for what reason exactly?

What does Canada, the US, Britain and the rest get out of it? I'm sure we're not there just out of the goodness of our hearts???

Does this help the economy in Iraq and Afghanistan??? It doesn't seem to. So why???

Anyways, you'll have to excuse my naïveté on the matter. Sometimes when I feel I can't do anything about something, I'd rather not know.

I'm looking forward to hearing about some solutions. It'll help me see the light at the end of the tunnel because where I sit, it seems pretty dark and grim. Moreover, I feel I just can't do anything about it!

Have a great day my friend and thank you for contributing to my learning process.

Je t'aime!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

FreakyNick said...

Yes, Nancy, it is a confusing issue. This was the reason I started this blog, to record my side of the story.

I was against it from the beginning, it made no sense. We didn't even try any diplomacy, that is idiotic and against U.S. policy and our military war doctrine. Bush was shooting his guns because he has them, he is an over-grown juvenile deliquent playing war games that is costing hundreds of thousands innocent lives, the military is brokem, and leaving the U.S. more vunerable to attack since pre WWI days. It was VERY irresponsible. He is a sham. Organized gov't criminal.

Anonymous said...

But Nick, what does he get out of it??? Is it only about power??? There must be more to this,right?

Thank you for your patience on my ignorance... ;-) xxxxx

pissed off patricia said...

We barged into Iraq with promises we couldn't keep. The Iraqi people didn't call us and ask us to blow the hell out of them and their country, we did it for selfish purposes. Now we are in a hole that is deep and bloody. Time to stop digging!

Angry Ballerina said...

"We went into Iraq and removed an evil dictator..." I actually thought that with the beard Saddam looked like a loving grandfather.

Pam said...

Excellent analogy, nick (the squirt guns). I don't know the answer, but many smart ex-generals and knowledgeable people have made recommendations that have been ignored, dismissed and the person sometimes then got swiftboated.

All I know is the Iraqi people demonstrated in the streets and want us the HELL OUTTA there. Immediate withdrawl is probably not the answer, as you point out, but some kind of rational plan needs to be put in plcae!

All evidence points to continued and long-term occupation (the resort-like embassy for example). Our next president will have quite the challenge, that's for sure. (I have already written off bu$h, with his stay the course insanity. there's no way out unless he is impeached or until he leaves office).

Angry Ballerina said...

BTW, thanks for the shout out.

Peacechick Mary said...

We don't really know if the Iraqi people will sink into a worse situation, but I believe in their opinion, it would be better than having U.S. occupiers in their midst. They want us out. They are not the enemy. We are their enemy invading their country.

Mary said...

Yes, the analogy was great. I too say if they want us out lets go.

Blueberry said...

A third country (US) can't go into another country and "win" a civil war, even if we started it. It truly is no-win. We have outdone VietNam when it comes to a FUBAR situation. Iraq will be a huge black spot in this country's history no matter how or when we get out.

BadTux said...

Nancy, even those of us who follow the news and research issues and all that haven't figured out what the bleep we're doing in Iraq? Is it about the oil? But there's no oil in Fallujah, so why did we go in and level the place and kill hundreds of people and lose dozens of soldiers? Is it to bring "democracy"? Then why do we empower a government that is made up of anti-democratic theocrats who want to create a religious dictatorship in Iraq? Is it to fight fundamentalist Islam? Then why did we overthrow and eventually kill one of the biggest enemies that fundamentalist Islam had in the Middle East (Saddam Hussein)?

Nobody has been able to give me one reason for us being in Iraq that actually holds up to scrutiny. Nowdays I think it's all about ego. Sonny Bush wanted to prove that he could do what Daddy Bush couldn't do, i.e., "finish the job" that was started with Oil War I (the War for Kuwait's Oil that Daddy Bush called off once the goal of getting Kuwait's oil back into the hands of his Kuwaiti buddies was attained). Now Sonny Bush refuses to admit that the war is a disaster because of, well, ego.

In that theory, we're in Iraq because an infantile frat boy is throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the supermarket that is Planet Earth, flailing around and smashing shit and refusing to behave. If that's the case, it's a sad situation indeed... and the first thing to do is to pick him up by the scruff of the neck, drag him out of the store, and *quit breaking shit!* Then once the store owners (the Iraqis) can figure out how much damage was done, then and only then can we pay for the shit we did to their country... but this stuff of keeping soldiers around blowing shit up (because that's what soldiers do, they're not cops, they blow shit up) just isn't working.