Wow. It's nearly two years since the American invasion of Iraq. Two years! If I'd taken a gut feel of it, I would have said 9 months or so. I suspect that if I lived in Baghdad, it'd feel like a decade.
The really bizarre thing is that most Americans do not understand that their country is at war. They seem to think Iraq is under the same category as "peace-keeping" with the UN. It also makes it hard to see how, now that war is declared, any retaliation on US soil can be called a Terrorist Act. Isn't it just called fighting back, once someone has declared war on you?
From the nytimes:
"We thought in those early days in Vietnam that we were winning," Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, one of this war's most vocal opponents, warned in a speech here on Thursday. "We thought the skill and courage of our troops was enough. We thought that victory on the battlefield would lead to victory in war and peace and democracy for the people of Vietnam. In the name of a misguided cause, we continued in a war too long. We failed to comprehend the events around us. We did not understand that our very presence was creating new enemies and defeating the very goals we set out to achieve."
I hope so much that the Iraqi people can go to the polls today. I hope that the people who love their country can claim it for themselves. But it's asking a hell of a lot of each individual. Would you risk it? I think I might, if I were single and felt strongly for a candidate. But I don't think I would if I had spent the last two years desperately trying to keep my family alive, huddling from gunfire every night and wondering if the electricity will be on tomorrow so the kids can drink boiled water.
To live without fear is to live in freedom.
The Iraqi people deserve to be free, regardless of the governance they choose.
Thanks
Posted by: Online Home Loans at November 19, 2005 11:23 PM