The War on Terror

As some of you may know, the Democrats who have just been installed as the majority in both branches of Congress. Honestly, I could not be happier at this point. This came as a surprise to me, as well as many of those who know me. I used to be very much a conservative, mainly because I believed that my religious views nearly mandated it. I also, like many others of my religious persuasion, viewed abortion revocation and foreign war as protective necessities. I latched on to these two issues at the expense of all others, and now I pay the price for realizing my own social responsibility with a greatness that I had never foreseen. I did not recognize my blind allegiances, and now I have of late found myself in reaction against them.

It is true, my view on abortion has not changed from the conservative stance from a moral ground, but as far as I am aware, in all other issues, my view has found itself different, and not so much changed as awakened.

And this is part of why I am pleased with the shift in Congress. It is time for a difference to be made, and this is not a lone opinion. No, it is now in fact the majority. Blind faith could have left us blind, and yet somehow we have come to see what our country has caused. Civil War. Divisions. Stronger animosity against an imperialist mindset that the majority of the country does not actually hold. And if something is not done soon, our country will suffer for what its populace did not knowingly believe or enact. In the words of Senator Byrd (D-WV), "this is a lesson we should have learned many years ago, from Vietnam." If something is not done to change our approach to the "War on Terror", then soon that term will be used to describe not the agression against those who despise the country (which is itself the wrong way to approach the problem -- war is not reconciliation), but the fight to keep the country from itself being afraid of the consequences of its own government's irrational provocations.

I apologize for how shocking this may be to some, but daddy was a hippie, mommy was a moderate. My challenge to anyone who reads this and has the time to respond: what part of the Democrat agenda for the war is unacceptable? I know that I am unaware of everything, but let's be honest about the reality of the bigger picture. What conflict is resolved in having hamonious relationships when seeking to fight?

This said, the issue of our mismanagement of the war in Iraq will not be solved merely by cutting and running, and in this I agree with the Democratic outlook as well. There is no reason to merely leave Iraq in a state of perpetual decay; this would merely acknowledge our mistakes without actually seeking to repair them. Unfortunately, deploying more troops will not repair our mistakes, but will continue to show to everyone that we continue to think our mistakes are in fact not mistakes at all. In addition to this, adding such a little amount of troops will not accomplish what is being proposed in the first place.

The time is up for those who wish to continue such useless measures. It is a lose-lose situation: either we deploy insuffcient power to implement more movements of war in Iraq and get more people killed, or we deploy too many troops, leaving our forces stretched to the max and unable to handle any other major global or domestic problem. If we do not deploy more that the President will propose tomorrow, our efforts will be in vain again, and this time for an estimated 2-3 more years. TWO TO THREE MORE YEARS, FOLKS. That is not a short amount of time; that is literally half of the time that this war has continued for already. However, if we seek to end what an unchecked Bush started, by continuing it fully in the logical way it has gone so far and now demands from a strategic standpoint, we will be left overly vulnerable both globally and domestically unless we put an enormous amount of additional youth into mandatory military service.

Draft anyone? I don't think so. If you want your people safe, then you listen to those who have issues with you and be as diplomatic as possible; you do not become power-tripped and aggressive, ultimately forcing yourself and your ideals upon those who already feel disrespected and slighted by you. If you want your people safe then you do not make others angry at them, you protect them not only from present threat but also from future potential endangerment.