OK, for those of you that know me...know that I have a political opinion but in the same breath that it really disgusts me to discuss politics. That being said, I have to comment on events that happened today in Iraq. Apparently, according to news reports, there was a suicide bomber allowed to enter Iraqis Parliament buildings and detonate in or around a busy cafeteria killing at least 8 people and injuring many others. The bomber, of course, could not be identified because they were obviously blown to bits. According to news reports, the bomber was mis-identified as a body-guard for an Iraqi official and allowed to access key areas where they could inflict serious damage. The crocks to this event is that this happened in an area known as the "Green Zone"...an area totally controlled by US and...I use the term loosely "coalition" forces. What happened to Security? Why was not everyone stripped searched before they enter this "area" or at least patted down. I thought before this incident that there would be multiple areas of searching, body cavity poking, questioning before entering...such a powerfully identified "zone". A failure to communicate no longer cuts it with me. Accidents don't happen anymore!
I have to say that I felt angry when I read that this had happened. Angry because this area is supposed to be the most heavily fortified, policed, searched and stable area in Baghdad, if not the whole of Iraq. I want to know what went wrong here. I think this is finally my straw.
I would like someone to tell me what exactly are we doing there? In what way is this benefiting me as an American? I am tired of the touchy-feely emotions of helping a downtrodden and suppressed peoples...Its just not reason enough anymore. As an American I want something in my hand or my pocket to show for all of this. To beat all, I am from the Show Me State so Show Me.... I have never felt from even the 1st Gulf conflict that Iraq and Saddam Hussein was somehow a threat to me and my country. He was a piddly little man that did a lot of very horrendous things, no worse than those in Darfur, Sierra Leone, Liberia, or Croatia just to name a few. Quite frankly, I have always felt much more ill-at-ease if not down right frighted by the Dictator in charge of North Korea and his country's definite possession of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and his defined ability to actually destroy a significant part of my homeland. I never felt a threat from anyone in Iraq.
For Jiminy-Cricket sake, the forces of Iraq didn't even put up a fight when we invaded, the 1st or this last time. I have always thought that if there was all these weapons that Saddam used on his own countrymen, why then did he not use them on the invasion forces? What exactly did the man have to loose by not using them on us for invading his country? If he could kill his own countrymen why not the invasion forces in the country? Instead, I am asked to believe that he shipped them off to Syria to "hide" them. Did the thousands of invasion forces only cause him to think that his vision of a perfect country was going to continue? Did the bombs of destruction we used to take over the country not say to him...now is the time to fight back? Oh no, he says to himself, I have to hide these weapons...not use them to kill. If I had these kinds of weapons at my disposal and my home was invaded, I sure would have used them to kill mine enemies...let me tell you! and without hesitation...and that is just another reason I have all these questions...and no answers. Its been long enough, show me the pictures, let me see for myself the writings, the documents, the testimonies , lets go to the video tape...that give me definite concrete reasons for the current conflict. Can you read the frustration I feel?
I ask again, how exactly am I going to benefit from this invasion, war, whatever... Is Iraq going to become the Disneyland of the Mid-East for me? Is it going to become a gentrified vacation spot with some of the best food and drink around? Am I going to get free gasoline because Iraq possesses more oil then even Saudi Arabia under its soils? Am I going to get a free camel with free food to feed it for life? What about free woven Persian rugs? What...........exactly............am I going to get from this action? How is it going to first and foremost...financially or physically benefit me? How am I going to monetarily profit from this action? I don't go to work everyday for the glorious feeling of contributing to society...I have to earn a paycheck that pays for my way of life. So again and again, I ask and I ask...how does this make my life better? Unfortunately, the idealism of the betterment of mankind doesn't keep the roof over my head, the gas in my car, or food in my fat gut. Let's all forget for a moment about freeing a slaven peoples. That reason is not even close enough for justification in my eyes. Because...there are so many other peoples across the globe that are suppressed or held captive or killed by dictators or madmen. There are so many millions killed and maimed that I keep asking myself why this particular country...and not all the others? What is so special? That b.s. about other parts of the world being upheld through diplomacy and not thru force is just that B.....S......people are still dying for their freedoms or lack thereof all over the globe and Americans can't save the world but maybe, just maybe, save the cheerleader....because if we save the cheerleader we save the world...
(Heroes-a TV Show, NBC reference..google it).
Those of you that know me, know that my Brother-in-law is a dedicated member and career Officer in our Armed Forces. I have Parents, Uncles, Aunts, Cousins and Friends that have either served in the military or are very supportive of the Troops that serve for us. I count myself among them. I want everyone to know that I support and defiantly respect those that serve for me...to my core. They are doing me the greatest service of protecting me and the country I call home. This is not just lip-service. I could never find fault with those that serve. They serve for me as I could not. I would not want anyone to believe that by my questioning the actions of my government, that I somehow disapprove of a service member protecting me and my way of life. That, for me, is unquestionable. A service member first and foremost is doing what they are trained and told to do. Said service members may believe they are doing what is right for our country and I respect their right to that opinion. They may also question the validity and authority but because of their duty, they follow orders to serve and protect in disregard for their personal politics. You can't pay anyone a greater respect than that.
It is in this instance, I disagree not with the service members serving but with the powers that be above those that serve, those that are running my country. In the end, I want to know the real reasons for this conflict. I reiterate again and finally the question that comes to my mind constantly....How exactly this is "war" benefiting me financially and fiscally. Day to day I have to earn money, pay my bills, buy groceries to eat, fill my gas tank, etc. Whether we want to admit it or not one thing directly affects and effects the other. The bill is coming due and is the warm feeling of do-goodness in my belly enough to justify the cost of it all? Not for me...my parents always told me you don't get something for nothing and I am tired of my country paying the price. At least, could I get a year's supply of free gas or something???
I welcome comments one and all....thanks for reading. Like I said a while back, can read the frustration in my being?
I have to say that I felt angry when I read that this had happened. Angry because this area is supposed to be the most heavily fortified, policed, searched and stable area in Baghdad, if not the whole of Iraq. I want to know what went wrong here. I think this is finally my straw.
I would like someone to tell me what exactly are we doing there? In what way is this benefiting me as an American? I am tired of the touchy-feely emotions of helping a downtrodden and suppressed peoples...Its just not reason enough anymore. As an American I want something in my hand or my pocket to show for all of this. To beat all, I am from the Show Me State so Show Me.... I have never felt from even the 1st Gulf conflict that Iraq and Saddam Hussein was somehow a threat to me and my country. He was a piddly little man that did a lot of very horrendous things, no worse than those in Darfur, Sierra Leone, Liberia, or Croatia just to name a few. Quite frankly, I have always felt much more ill-at-ease if not down right frighted by the Dictator in charge of North Korea and his country's definite possession of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and his defined ability to actually destroy a significant part of my homeland. I never felt a threat from anyone in Iraq.
For Jiminy-Cricket sake, the forces of Iraq didn't even put up a fight when we invaded, the 1st or this last time. I have always thought that if there was all these weapons that Saddam used on his own countrymen, why then did he not use them on the invasion forces? What exactly did the man have to loose by not using them on us for invading his country? If he could kill his own countrymen why not the invasion forces in the country? Instead, I am asked to believe that he shipped them off to Syria to "hide" them. Did the thousands of invasion forces only cause him to think that his vision of a perfect country was going to continue? Did the bombs of destruction we used to take over the country not say to him...now is the time to fight back? Oh no, he says to himself, I have to hide these weapons...not use them to kill. If I had these kinds of weapons at my disposal and my home was invaded, I sure would have used them to kill mine enemies...let me tell you! and without hesitation...and that is just another reason I have all these questions...and no answers. Its been long enough, show me the pictures, let me see for myself the writings, the documents, the testimonies , lets go to the video tape...that give me definite concrete reasons for the current conflict. Can you read the frustration I feel?
I ask again, how exactly am I going to benefit from this invasion, war, whatever... Is Iraq going to become the Disneyland of the Mid-East for me? Is it going to become a gentrified vacation spot with some of the best food and drink around? Am I going to get free gasoline because Iraq possesses more oil then even Saudi Arabia under its soils? Am I going to get a free camel with free food to feed it for life? What about free woven Persian rugs? What...........exactly............am I going to get from this action? How is it going to first and foremost...financially or physically benefit me? How am I going to monetarily profit from this action? I don't go to work everyday for the glorious feeling of contributing to society...I have to earn a paycheck that pays for my way of life. So again and again, I ask and I ask...how does this make my life better? Unfortunately, the idealism of the betterment of mankind doesn't keep the roof over my head, the gas in my car, or food in my fat gut. Let's all forget for a moment about freeing a slaven peoples. That reason is not even close enough for justification in my eyes. Because...there are so many other peoples across the globe that are suppressed or held captive or killed by dictators or madmen. There are so many millions killed and maimed that I keep asking myself why this particular country...and not all the others? What is so special? That b.s. about other parts of the world being upheld through diplomacy and not thru force is just that B.....S......people are still dying for their freedoms or lack thereof all over the globe and Americans can't save the world but maybe, just maybe, save the cheerleader....because if we save the cheerleader we save the world...
(Heroes-a TV Show, NBC reference..google it).
Those of you that know me, know that my Brother-in-law is a dedicated member and career Officer in our Armed Forces. I have Parents, Uncles, Aunts, Cousins and Friends that have either served in the military or are very supportive of the Troops that serve for us. I count myself among them. I want everyone to know that I support and defiantly respect those that serve for me...to my core. They are doing me the greatest service of protecting me and the country I call home. This is not just lip-service. I could never find fault with those that serve. They serve for me as I could not. I would not want anyone to believe that by my questioning the actions of my government, that I somehow disapprove of a service member protecting me and my way of life. That, for me, is unquestionable. A service member first and foremost is doing what they are trained and told to do. Said service members may believe they are doing what is right for our country and I respect their right to that opinion. They may also question the validity and authority but because of their duty, they follow orders to serve and protect in disregard for their personal politics. You can't pay anyone a greater respect than that.
It is in this instance, I disagree not with the service members serving but with the powers that be above those that serve, those that are running my country. In the end, I want to know the real reasons for this conflict. I reiterate again and finally the question that comes to my mind constantly....How exactly this is "war" benefiting me financially and fiscally. Day to day I have to earn money, pay my bills, buy groceries to eat, fill my gas tank, etc. Whether we want to admit it or not one thing directly affects and effects the other. The bill is coming due and is the warm feeling of do-goodness in my belly enough to justify the cost of it all? Not for me...my parents always told me you don't get something for nothing and I am tired of my country paying the price. At least, could I get a year's supply of free gas or something???
I welcome comments one and all....thanks for reading. Like I said a while back, can read the frustration in my being?
5 comments:
Ok, there has been a revision in the number of dead from 8 to 1 but that still doesn't change my original point as to ask why this could happen...
We learned our lesson about life and supporting the weak many many years ago. Do you see the mistakes from which we grew? Just my opinion
The Holocaust:(sound familiar?)
The countries across the Atlantic did not believe that a holocaust was indeed going on – they simply refused to accept the truth. Perhaps if they had believed sooner, many more lives could have been saved. And even as the war was fought, the Americans purposefully did not bomb the railroad tracks that led to the various concentration camps, and even after the war began the Nazis continued to transport Jews to the concentration camps.
A dictionary definition of the word holocaust: great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life (especially by fire). The Jews, though certainly the largest group prosecuted during the six years of the Holocaust, were not the only ones. Gypsies and homosexuals were also deported to concentration camps. This was all part of the Aryan purge of the filth of the world. In their minds, Germans were the highest of beings, after them came other peoples, and Jews and other “deformed” people were not even human, they were below human. They were below animals. This is how the Nazis justified the cruel destruction of an entire nation.
The Holocaust progressed, and six million Jewish lives were destroyed in the gas chambers and death pits of the concentration camps, many of which were situated in Poland, who welcomed the Germans with open arms. The most famous of camps, Auschwitz, is located in Poland.
People who escaped from the Nazis made up pockets of resistance that somehow survived in the forests. Some escaped from Europe altogether and went to America, and a few even came to Israel, where at some point they were turned away by the British, who were in control of Palestine, as Israel was known then.
More than the recorded six million were lost in pogroms that happened all over Europe, and many Jewish children who were hidden among Christian families and various churches and monasteries were lost to their Jewish heritage forever. Not all Europeans were cruel to the Jews – there were many who hid Jews at the risk of their own lives, and are commemorated in Israel in Yad Vashem, the Holocaust commemoration center in Jerusalem, along with all the names of Jewish victims known to us.
Toward the end of the war, when it was clear that Germany had lost, Hitler quietly shot himself. Germany was liberated from Nazi rule in 1945 by America and Russia. Nazi officers were put to trial, and so ended the Holocaust, although the impact of the incident still echoes inside our souls.
Anonymous...if the Japanese, an ally to Germany, had not attacked Pearl Harbor then FDR and America would not have entered into WW2. What is sad is that America had intelligence of the atrocities of the Nazi party before we were attacked in Pearl Harbor but our government chose to remain out of the conflict. Also, when we were fully engaged in the war we were spread across continents hence the moniker WWII, and we still beat them down, not centralized in a country the size of Texas! America dropped an atomic bomb to end our part of the war after we destroyed the 3rd Reich. Why not Atomic Bomb Iraq? There have been as many if not more countries involved in the fall of Iraq today as were in WWII and I as a lay person do not understand the problem of taking control of a country smaller than Texas.
If we were so concerned about freeing the Iraqi people from tyranny and oppression explain to me why o why did we not free them when America engaged them in the 1st Gulf conflict? Instead we let thousands of innocent Iraqis believe that if they rose up against Saddam that we would fall in right behind them and take up there cause. Instead, we let thousands be killed when they rose up against Saddam and we went back home. Finally, after WWII was over everything was cheap, cheap cheap. I am tired of $2.58 a gallon and $1.99 a pound for yellow onions that used to be .49c a pound and .99c a gallon. Iraq has at least one thing that should be a direct benefit to us their Saviors and it is not helping. Something is wrong. I feel for the oppressed around the world but there are too many across the globe for America to be saving and why this country? Why not Sierra Leone, Darfur, Liberia, Croatia, North Korea, China, Venezuela, Honduras, Haiti, or Mexico? If it is necessary to invade and free an oppressed people, then why only in Iraq? There are other dictators thumbing their noses in our face and we are not invading to take control? And don’t mention diplomacy. I want to know why? I want free Gas or something to make up for all this, my peace of mind is so not enough. If peace of mind were enough then you should just do your job and quit complaining about what someone else is getting that you are not. Invade the bee-och then…peace of mind be damned! In the end, do I have a valid point about this or not?
Well for one thing, in WWII the enemy was in a uniform and easily identified. The terrorist insurgence are in civilian attire. They are hard to identify.
No matter where we invade, no matter where we send relief, there will ALWAYS be critics.
Yes you have a point, and you are entitled to your opinion. But I can’t help but feel offended. When MY HUSBAND is one of those that has put his life on the line, and who has told me so many positive stories about the efforts in Iraq, and thousands of military families that sacrifice for the common good. When civilians that have no personal loss other than pennies (really) are complaining. Do they want to step up to the plate? Not so much. If not for the heroes of this world, who would sacrifice for change and the betterment of humanity.
Your opinion and passion regarding this topic is noted. We will have to agree to disagree. And pray for our service members who protect us all from harm. Perhaps you should put in a prayer card on Saturday night for all the service men and women deployed to foreign lands, and stop focusing on the uncontrollable.
Anonymous...for the record, if I remember the many speeches and state of the Union Addresses and Press Conferences prior to our attack on Iraq...we did not invade Iraq simply to help the people of Iraq that has always been an item far down on the list. 1st and foremost, Iraq was invaded because it posed a significant threat to our American Way of Life. They had Weapons of Mass destruction that they refused to show to the UN Inspectors and they thumbed their nose in response to that and they were going to use them against us in a big mushroom cloud on my horizon in my back yard. America had “Intel” that Iraq purchased Yellow-Cake Uranium from Niger and…there was definite proof that Saddam was directly supporting Al-Qaeda Terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center. It was for all those reasons that America and its allies invaded Iraq (which recently the Pentagon has come forward and documented that none of those previous reasons are true, that there is insufficient evidence to support those prior claims). Freeing the people and deposing the Dictator were at best only secondary if not further down the list as our reasons for invading the country in the 1st place. That doesn’t give me such a warm fuzzy inside.
I am not a saying that America is not doing something good over there. We blew the crude out of their way of life and now I guess we have to rebuild it make it a little better. I have read stories of the good myself. My point is that there are other regions of the world where dictators or powerful governments are committing genocide and ethic cleansing of millions of helpless peoples and why are we just standing by in those cases, in particular, Darfur Africa. There have been millions of innocent victims killed in far more heinous ways than anyone in Iraq, if you can make a difference of that As an American I would have felt far better having saved people like that and creating a stable government there. And….we can’t even find the mastermind to the Whole thing Bin Laden. Why are we not just bombing the shite out of those mountains and sending thousands of forces in to catch that guy. I would certainly pay to see that. Why all of a sudden has be become this secondary character in our Melodrama. He is still persona non-grata No.1 and we can’t even catch or kill him.
Also, if the reasons we invaded are not now supported, my question is why that country in the first place. Tell me the real reasons that we have had our soldiers die for. If they are going to put their lives at risk in the first place tell me the truth. If the government had to lie about it in the end what good does it really do? It just makes more people hate me. Are the real reasons because America wanted a place to establish a base of operations in the Mid-East and not have Saudi Arabia telling us what to do? Is it because 41 couldn’t get it done so 43 had to clear the family name? I think we haven’t invaded other countries because they have nothing to offer the US in either a strategic location or a commodity we shop for. It is not because America wants to save the oppressed people or I guess we would have already overthrown the despicable governments.
Please, don’t be offended because your husband put his life on the line and sacrificed for the common good. That is a wonderful thing….but would your husband have had to do that in the first place if the true reasons for the invasion were known? All this would perhaps have not been necessary in the first place. I can’t cry over split milk now and I’m not. I say let’s clean up our mess and get out. We have given those people their own rope, now let’s either let them hang themselves or they can get off the pot and start acting like a free democratic nation on their own….
PS I still think America should have 1 year of free gas for every person and every car on the road...
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