Nobody is against the war on terror. Almost nobody was against us fighting in Afghanistan. Everyone was united, everyone was on our side here and abroad. In fact the "evil" French contributed GREATLY to the war in Afghanistan and they're still there. We were there to bring to justice the people who attacked us on 9/11. We were there to bring to justice the corrupt administration that harbored and helped the terrorists that murdered thousands of americans in one day.
What happened there? Haven't you ever found it strange that you see next to
zero news stories about what's been going on in Afghanistan for the last 4 years?
I'll tell you.
Soldiers are still there fighting. The Taliban is still there shooting at our troops. the new government there is just as corrupt as the last one. Things are a mess. Nothing was finished there. Nothing was half finished there. There have been good things and bad things but it's far from over.
I bet you can't find a defining moment where the USA decided that Iraq became more of a urgent emergency than Afghanistan - Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. I sure can't. I watch the news every day and for me at least this came very slowly with a story or two about the UN inspections and pundits on the radio telling about how dangerous Iraq is. And slowly it morphed into Iraq being this dire emergency we needed to take care of.
First let's look at Iraq before the whole argument started. Here's this country that was totally wiped out by us in the Gulf war. They were under sanctions. They had a lot of people starving and dying because of sanctions AS WELL AS Saddam not delivering some of the supplies to the needy.
One truth EVERYONE agrees with right off the bat. Saddam was a corrupt dictator that was oppressive and killed a great deal his political opponents and kept his people repressed. He was an evil guy. in some point in time he would have to be removed.
Here's how I will answer the stupid Hannity argument of if the "world is better off without Saddam in power".
1) IT'S GOOD THAT SADDAM
IS GONE
2) IT'S NOT GOOD THE WAY IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED
3) IT MAY BE WORSE IN THE LONG RUN FOR THE WORLD THE WAY IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED
THAN IF WE LEFT HIM IN POWER.
4) HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT OF POWER AT THE RIGHT TIME FOR THE RIGHT REASONS.
Now, if your a die hard GOP supporter or even someone who strongly buys into the idea that Democrats and the bad guys and the Republicans are the good guys, you probably won't agree with this but read on...
HERE IS WHY I BELIEVE WHOLE HEAREDLY THAT THE PRESIDENT MISLED US INTO WAR.
And I want to say up front that my views of Bush do not come from any reporter or author or from Michael Moore. They came from watching press conferences with him and one specific day where it became clear to me what was happening. Every opinion I have on Bush has been given to me by Bush himself.
Ok - this is hard to describe
because it takes a lot of explaining and a lot of remembering to show you how
I feel about this. But I'll try to be as clear as possible.
Here's what I know - Saddam was totally contained. He had no army to speak of.
He had GIANT "no fly zones" which boxed him into a small section of
his own country. He did not have control of a great portion of Iraq due to the
zones and sanctions. Condi Rice said in 2000 "He does not control the northern
part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces
have not been rebuilt". Colin Powell said "He has not developed any
significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable
to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies
have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq". This is all available
for you to see.
Again, I absolutely agree that at some point the bad things Saddam did to his people needed to be dealt with at some point ....
BUT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WORRYING ABOUT AFGHANISTAN AND STOPPING THE PEOPLE WHO MURDERED AMERICANS!!
If we finished there I would have totally TOTALLY been in in favor of us getting "crimes against humanity" charges against Saddam like we did for Milosevich. THAT would have been a 100% worthy cause - At the right time and with the right plan. And the world would have been behind us like it was in Afghanistan and as it was in the first Gulf War.
After the Gulf War, The UN had inspectors in Iraq making sure that they destroyed stockpiles of WMD that everyone agrees they had during the war with Iran (in the 80's over 20 years ago).
Here's one thing you never get told.... The UN (who everyone tells you was ineffective) SUCCESSULLY DESTROYED AND ACCOUNTED FOR THE DISTRUCTION OF ALMOST ALL THE WMD OF IRAQ BEFORE CLINTON BOMBED THEM. There was an argument over certain records of some unconfirmed stockpiles that could not be confirmed. This is where Colin Powell got his WMD amounts when he got in front of the TV and told you they have thousands of liters of anthrax and thousands of liters of botulinum toxin etc. He was telling you from a report that was given to us in the mid 90's. Anyway - since that time the UN inspected more and confirmed more. Then they got in a dispute with Iraq over where they could and could not be allowed to inspect and they pulled out on their own. ONE OF THE DISPUTED PLACES was a place that Clinton bombed. When he did that, every Republican in the country said that Clinton was doing it to take your attention off his corrupt presidency. Then, inspections started again.
ALL THIS TIME - we have had spy planes over Iraq. Satellites who can read the page of a book that you're reading in the air over Iraq. Spies over there. Inspectors combing the country. But with all this- Bush and the entire GOP media division like Fox and the radio talk show hosts all begin to tell you over and over how Iraq has "mountains of WMD and how they are planning to use them on us". You get as evidence articles from 20 years ago, images almost a decade old and DRAWINGS of vehicles that don't really exsist.
Doesn't that at least make you think a little?
Suddenly Iraq was this monster who had to be stopped. Here's where the deniability
starts. Bush says they're a growing threat. Condi Rice warns about a nuclear
threat of Iraq. Cheney tells you they have WMD and its an emergency. And they
have ties with Al Qaida. Rumsfield says that there is no doubt there are weapons.
Powell shows us pictures of the actual weapons without telling you its 20 year
old pictures and that its a 10 year old report. Blair says they can strike within
45 minutes. Condi again says this is an urgent threat. Bush again says that
Saddam has weapons that can be used against us and Americans cant afford another
9/11. Then he starts putting 9/11 in every speech. Along with Iraq.
FACT: 70% of America believed Saddam attacked us on 9/11.
Do you REALLY think that wasn't intentional? We were told they had drone planes that could attack the east coast. We were told that they could get nuclear weapons and nuke Israel. We were told through the media rumors about "mystery ships" that left Iraq without flags floating around aimlessly which "possibly had WMD on them" - never heard another thing about them.
ALL THIS TIME, INSPECTORS ARE ON THE GROUND IN IRAQ AND THE UN IS SAYING THAT INSPECTIONS ARE WORKING. IRAQ IS SCREAMING THAT THEY HAVE NO WEAPONS. and Bush is going to the UN asking them to confirm how Iraq has violated resolutions. They told him over and over an over that inspections were working and to let them do their job.
Bush after being told by the UN to let them work goes to the US and says that the UN Resolutions need to be enforced and that Saddam is not cooperating. So he goes to congress and gets a resolution to go to war with Iraq IF HE CAN DISPLAY THAT DIPLOMATIC METHODS CAN NOT BE USED.
So he gets that and then goes on tv....
Please please please read the questions and answers in this press conference.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030306-8.html
Basically he was saying three things in this one conference.
1- I hope we don't need
to go to war
2- Saddam can end this by cooperating and disarming
3- Saddam ALREADY HAD his chance to cooperate and disarm
Please read it... and please be judgmental. Pretend this was coming from a Clinton press conference. Don't you find it even a little strange that he's telling you how Saddam is out of time and had his chance but he can still disarm but its too late and we will disarm him if he doesn't disarm but he had his chance but I hope we don't have to go to war?
And he says in it something like "if the UN believes he should be disarmed, and he's not going to disarm, there's only one way to disarm him. And that happens to be my last choice -- the use of force."
Last Choice?
That really was the clincher for me. That made me totally believe he was lying. Before I suspected but this made it an emotional issue for me that MY AMERICAN PRESIDENT WAS CONNING HIS PUBLIC TO GET US INTO A WAR FOR WHAT EVER REASON HE REALLY HAD.
Then he said he would get a vote from the UN to support him but he knew what they would vote and NEVER tried to get one. U.S. INTELLIGENCE WAS SAYING THAT THEY BELIVED THAT THE STORIES ABOUT WMD MAY BE FALSE but he ignored them.
THOSE THINGS ALONE VIOLATED HIS CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION THE MOMENT THE FIRST SHOT WAS FIRED. THAT IS A FEDERAL CRIME.
Suddenly we start bombing the country and it becomes treasonous to speak up and say "Wait a minute!!! What are we doing?"
A lot of people, maybe a lot of you who really really have your hearts in the right place think people like me are "anti-American" for not falling inline behind Bush in the Iraq war.
But let me ask you one giant question...
WHAT IF I AM RIGHT? WHAT IF ITS TRUE WHAT I SUSPECT? WHAT IF HE DID INVADE A COUNTRY BECAUSE HE WANTED FINANCIAL GAIN FOR HIMSELF OR PEOPLE THAT HELP PUT HIM INTO POWER? WHAT IF HE IS REALLY REALLY REALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR KILLING INOCENT PEOPLE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY AND GETTING OUR OWN SOLDIERS KILLED FOR A PERSONAL AND PARTISAN POLITICAL MOTIVE? WHAT IF HE'S CROOKED ALONG WITH PEOPLE IN HIS ADMINISTRATION AND THE RIGHT WING TV AND RADIO HOSTS AND DIE HARD SPORTS FAN REPUBLICANS FOLLOW THIS BECAUSE THEY ROOT FOR THEIR TEAM NO MATTER HOW CORRUPT IT IS?
When is the right time to speak up? After millions are dead? After your family members are affected?
I know of nobody on either side that wants our soldiers to die. I know of nobody that wants America to do badly. Nobody wants a president to be corrupt but what if he is? I feel if a person loves his country so much that he speaks out if he truly sees thugs trying to hijack his country - he is a patriot. And that's what I see. And that's what many see. But you don't get that on the news. The news which you get told is "left slanted" gives war coverage like it's the US Olympic team and we all have flags out and ribbons and its totally bad to say anything bad about the country. Hannity wraps himself with a flag and uses it when he attacks people of the opposing party on tv and radio. Do you really think he's right that they want the terrorists to win? Do you think for one moment that if a scandal surfaced... a really bad one - do you really think Hannity would NOT defend a criminal that's on his "team"?
I'm NOT anti-American. I don't want terrorists to win. I want EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT. Think about that. I'm NOT the enemy. We're on the same team. I just think (know) that the current administration is corrupt and are responsible for a lot of misery and death and for what ever reason the media refuses to investigate it and I'm trying to scream for people to see what I see.
And if it was a Democrat doing this I'd be JUST AS VOCAL. But you wouldn't hear me because I'd be lost in the crowd of people being more vocal.
There is a bad side to
my feeling this way
The downside of this is that now that I'm convinced that the Bush administration
is truly criminal, I have no trust for anything that comes from them. So now
I will second guess everything I see. And that's bad. I may be overreacting.
I'll admit that, but I also think if the guy is capable of everything I think
he has done so far, it's almost a no-brainer to be suspicous of everything he
does and says. Do I think he's responsible for the swiftboat ads against Kerry
in the election? Yes. Will I ever be able to prove it? Of course not. Do I think
that the electronic voting machines are a tool by the GOP because the CEO of
the company said he'd deliver the election to Bush? Does it make me more scared
that only the Republicans are FIGHTING against having paper trail evidence in
case there is a problem with the machines? YES. Do i think this is a conspiracy?
I don't know but I'm scare to death because I don't trust them now. At all.
And it's terrifying because if the people that make that claim are right, we
have already lost. All of us citizens from all parties.
Sadly I can't trust this administration with anything now and EVERY THING BUSH SAYS I now feel is a lie. Amazingly, I'm doing the media's job by being skeptical.
I hate feeling this way about a President and my own Government because we should be united especially this time in our history.