The Politics of Heroism

What we are calling terrorism in Iraq is simply the chaos which resulted there when we removed the iron hand which had kept the chaos relatively smothered. The sooner we leave, the sooner the parliament will be blown up and the next iron hand will take over. Unfortunately, the next one might be a religious figure instead of one like Saddam, who was more of a cruel realist, the only really qualified leader for a place so steeped in religious extremism. We have literally made a mess that we are incapable of cleaning up. The kindest thing that we can do for those people is to get out of their way while they dig through the rubble and rebuild something that they can live with as peaceably as possible.
After we leave there, our country needs to be led by someone who can teach us how dangerous it is to misuse such awesome power as we possess. It is not effective as a policing tool. It is only good for our protection. Going to war with Iraq had nothing to do with our protection.It was a unilaterally unjustified aggressive act unworthy of our Democracy. Preemptive war is anathema to our future. We must never do something so foolish as this again or we will quickly find ourselves in the rubble of past civilizations which made the same error.

Whenstarsturnblue, a host of countries are in the hands of one terrorist or another. Saddam Hussein also terrorized some of his own citizens. However, that was not a legitimate reason for us to go there if we exclude all of the other countries similarly situated, as we do. When we leave Iraq, the country will be terrorized by someone again. That is the only way that you can bring order to the insane religious fanatics there. I was already under control before we got there. Democracy is a farce in that place. We are fooling ourselves if we think that we can impose that form of government on that country. It is possibly centuries too early for that culture. It dwells in past events of a thousand years for its tenets. We are literally spitting in the wind there.

It is only in this country that you hear all of the enthusiasm for our activity in Iraq. The rest of the civilized world sees it as an historical hypocrisy of gigantic proportions. The casual way in which our president changes the reason for committing our nation to this folly as one by one each reason fails in its own fraudulent way is a scandal that will render his presidential library as a farcical monument to his stupidity. I can't wait to visit there and listen to the snickers at his exhibits of wartime prowess. All he lacks is an Adolph Hitler mustache to complete the picture.

Some of us are not what you call party loyalists, leaving the vote open to see what is to be done before casting it into the blindness of political faith. We listen to what is promised to be done and then vote for those things. The war is a travesty, long overdue to end. Farting around in the neighborhoods and making everyone be nice in the midst of our troops, surging, is a waste of our time and resources. It is no better than the temporary appearance of stability in a society ridden with hate between rival religious factions. The image that this will somehow create an orderly country so that we can leave is just as false as the WMD's that we went there in the first place to remove. All that has been removed is the future of our treasury. I will vote for whoever pledges to get us out of there the soonest. But, if Obama promises only fifty years, then I will simply vote for Mc Cain because he will have become a patently unreliable liar.

If going to Iraq before deciding to withdraw or not is necessary, then one needs to go there first before making promises. We are upside down here on our position.

I used to say Mc Cain't, but now I reserve the right to say Mc Maybehecantoo. The floor of politics is very slippery and one must maintain a steady stance in order not to slip and fall into the slime from wishy washing the political floor.

Clark told the truth, but the miserable little scribbler Eleanor Clift and a few idiots on Fox News don't like it. Boo hoo!

Well, maybe when I go to Iraq and take a look, I might just decide to stay there?? Whoa.

Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to Kerry me home.
Kerry was swift boated. Mc Cain will be Kerried just as long as his supporters try to allege the fraudulent qualities of war heroism as qualifications to be a president.

Well, if you quit trying to aggrandize Mc Cain by his war experiences, then his detractors will quit showing the other side. It does have two sides, you know. Same as Kerry's mistake in trying to capitalize on war. You blow up the uppers and we blow up the downers. Tit for tat.

Tokyo Rose for McCains VP.W.Clark is right and I salute him.

Being a POW is neither a qualifier or a disqualifier president. It is a part of the sum of a man's life. How a person deals with every situation which confronts him is a part -- a part -- of his makeup. It is clear that the qualities that McCain exhibited during his captivity make his opponents uncomfortable. There can be no other reason for the significant effort that those opponents are making every effort to demean those events. To believe Gen. Clark and his supporters you have to believe that McCain was simply a bumbling idiot who got shot down (which he well may have been) and went along for the ride with his captors (which he clearly did not) ??? that there was nothing about that experience which might help define the character of the man. It is clear, and understandable that McCains opponents can find nothing in his resume which might qualify him to be president. It is equally clear and understandable that McCains supporters can find nothing in the Obama resume which might similarly qualify him to be president. That is politics.

But it would be nice if Obama supporters had the intellectual honesty to refrain from suggesting that any of Obama???s life experiences have any bearing on his suitability as president as long as they are willing to cavalierly dismiss the possibility that McCain???s experience in Viet Nam is in no way a measure of his suitability to be president.

"Clark was a guest on Sunday's Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, who was grilling him about Obama's experience to be commander in chief, noting that unlike McCain, Obama has not "ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down." Mistake Number One: Clark repeated Schieffer's words, saying, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." That's a fair point but only if McCain were claiming it as a credential." - Isn't there an IQ requirement for being a pundit nowadays? McCain wasn't claiming it was a "credential", SCHIEFFER WAS!