Saturday, December 1, 2007

[1911 - Walter (Emmons) 'Smokey' Alston, Dodger Baseball HoF manager, born in Venice, Ohio]

[1913 - Mary Martin, Tony Award-winning actress, singer, born in Weatherford, Texas]

[1933 - Lou Rawls (Louis Allen), Grammy Award-winning singer, born in Chicago]

[1955 - Rosa Parks is arrested for disobeying Alabama law
requiring black passengers to relinquish bus seats to white passengers]

Victory in Iraq

Our esteemed President has yet to comprehend or adequately explain what we are doing in Iraq. He and the Vice President have attempted to justify our invasion of this small Middle Eastern nation as follows:

Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to our nation because he had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and was prepared to use them. [False - None Found]

Saddam Hussein was involved in the suicide attacks of September 11, 2001. [False]

The world is better off without Saddam Hussein and his henchmen in power in Iraq. [Right, but the same "ends justify the means" argument could be made for about half the nations of the world and their current heads of state, including my beloved land]

The United States has an obligation to spread freedom in the world by force of arms. [Sorry, I don't find this in my copy of the Constitution]

Forcibly establishing a western democracy in the Middle East, promotes peace and stability. [World does not look any safer or more stable since the start of the war, and indeed has become far more dangerous]

Invading Iraq keeps the terrorists busy and provides greater homeland security. [No proof of this and the price tag of about a hundred lives and $9 Billion per month seems a bit steep]

Now we are told that we cannot leave the mess in Iraq because all-out civil war might result and because we must have victory. In other words, it does not matter why we went to war against a country that had not attacked us and posed no threat, but once we did so we are obligated to complete the conquest.

This is a splendid new strategy. We Americans are a proud people, and we hate to lose. Even if we start a fight with a weaker opponent for an invalid reason we are not about to leave until we kick the crap out of somebody.

You are right to be worried about a civil war in Iraq, Mr. President, since your invasion created one. In case you hadn't noticed, a civil war is raging in Iraq. The Sunnis are killing the Shiites in large numbers and vice versa. As we train the Iraqi police and military forces these entities have been infiltrated by the militias. We may indeed be training and equipping both sides to better fight their civil war the longer we stay and try to referee it. Meanwhile the Kurds sit in their autonomous regions and await their chance for independence.

William's Whimsical Words:

Another great non-plan, Commander in Chief, Sir!

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