Posted By:
JoannDavid - ctown,
Your 6:00 post was perfect. Great job of distilling the logic and trail of thinking that many Americans have followed.
I only see two ways out - lose or draft - and neither good. I don't think it helps us to "lose" the Iraq war - meaning leave such that extremists can take over. The newest generation in my family is just now hitting draft age, and that scares me to death, plus I have a brother-in-law that will be there in the next few months.
I feel like I have two bad choices. One is to expose my family - children really, only 18 or so - to the draft and to danger in general with my bil on his way. The other is to protect them by having the US just leave and give Iraq and its people to the religious and political extremists, plus Afghanistan as well, and wind up far worse than we started.
Once we lose the war over there we will have to protect ourselves over here, and there is really only one way to protect ourselves here - that is further erosion of our civil liberties. We had one shot to get it right over there, and now it does appear to me that the only way to possibly, remotely salvage that opportunity is with the draft. Bush will, of course, stick the next president with that reality. He is a moron and a coward.
It grinds me to sawdust that this terrible polarity of choice is only because Bush screwed it all up so bad. It didn't need to come down to this. Bush's delusions of grandeur and arrogant insistence that we could conduct a "nimble and agile" war got us here. Period. And where is Eric Shenseki? Playing golf and watching kids get their asses shot up on CNN.
It doesn't matter what Bush does, how he characterizes his actions, how he mugs for the cameras and history books, and how he dumps the lose-or-draft decision on his successor. I am convinced that this country is smart enough to see through all that, and his legacy will be as the most incompetent and destructive president in history. I just hope I'm still around to see it being taught that way.
Joann