I have found my passion for writing about politics lately to be waning. Probably because the leadership in the White House has become so pathetic, there isn't much of importance to say. I assume as we get closer to the presidential election, my passion will grow again. In the meantime, I will still try to find my muse to rally against the current administration.
As you can probably imagine, I am a big fan of the show real time with Bill Maher. I don't always agree with what he says, but I certainly credit him for providing a forum for real debate (unlike those network news/opinion shows on Fox, CNN and MSNBC). Because he dedicates an entire hour to one panel of three people, instead a five minute segment on shows like Hardball, Bill Maher allows a debate to develop and the trading of point/counterpoint is allowed to happen naturally without pundits talking over each other.
Anyway conservative David Frum was on the panel to represent the right wing this week, and on the topic of Iraq, Mr. Frum was maddening. Taking the "we can't afford to fail" chorus we have heard so much, he stood in support of the surge, said it is working, and faulted the democrats in congress for bereft leadership in calling for an exit date. To make his point, he said, and I paraphrase since I don't have the transcript, that the democrats must be willing to accept responsibility for the massacre that will occur between the Sunnis and the Shia when we leave without having an established Iraqi democracy.
I call bullshit. The path to that probable massacre was set in motion when we invaded Iraq without any notion of how to build a nation from a culture of which we have very little understanding. You can't sit here now and say, if we pull out before Iraq can govern itself that is the mistake that makes matters worse. Worse yet, I can not, in good conscience continue to ask our troops to continue to lay down their lives for a cause that has no positive outcome. There is no way we will be able to leave that country in the next 40 years if the pre-requisite is self-governance through a republican form of democracy, not when the culture of that country doesn't value equality or freedom.
When it comes to Iraq, the government needs to act like a good catholic and pull-out.
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