A Former Republican On Iraq

On September 11th, 2001, the sleeping and apathetic citizens of the United States were awakened by a message that we weren’t used to hearing. It was a message the burned to the heavens, that was shown in every home and heard on every radio. We didn’t know exactly who it came from or why it was sent. The point of the message was simple, only four little words. “We don’t like you.”

And for the first time in decades (maybe more) the American people became afraid of something as small as that, said by a few “nobodies.”

America changed forever the instant that first plane hit the Twin Towers. The subsequent crashes were simply echoes of the hammer driving the stake deeper into the heart of our way of life.

It was said that the terrorists hate America and want to destroy us and our way of life. I think they did a much better job of that than they could’ve imagined.

As soon as the attacks happened, everyone felt vulnerable. Now of all the things that make the list of “what traits typify an American” being vulnerable wouldn’t be on that list (I don’t think so anyhow). Add fear, which most of us hadn’t known before then, to that vulnerability and Americans (in general) were willing to offer up the freedoms that were bought so dearly for us, like cheap sacrifices to the golden calf of “safety.”

I’m sure George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and the other Founders of our country looked down on us with fury, just as God did when he looked at the Israelites when they worshipped the golden calf at Mt. Sinai.

Suddenly we were creating new government agencies, we were creating bigger watch lists, we were somewhat secretly ignoring the Constitution, and we became paranoid. Trying to find the people responsible for hating us so much wasn’t enough, so we also had to try and find a way that our own people and leaders were at fault.

A little bunny trail here, no leader or government is all-knowing and any attempt for it to be that way can do nothing but destroy the very freedoms our leaders should be trying to protect. Trying to point at any of our leaders, present or previous, as being at fault is like trying to blame the fire marshal when a building burns down (because, isn’t it his job to not only investigate fires but also to try and find ways to prevent them?). The only people responsible or culpable for the September 11th attacks were those who planned them, funded them, and carried them out.

We discovered that the Taliban was behind the attacks and that there were quite a few of them in Afghanistan, so away we went. We also began taking a look at who else didn’t like us and who else might have the ability to do us harm.

Away we went to Iraq.

When we first went to Iraq, with the official objective of finding weapons of mass destruction, I was behind that goal 100%. I think that we have every right to protect ourselves by whatever means necessary, including violating the sovereignty of another nation by using a preemptive strike. I also think that, due to the amount of intelligence from our own agencies as well as those from almost all of our Allies which said “Saddam almost certainly has WMD,” that we were justified in going in for that reason and finding out for sure.

Where the whole deal got fucked up, in my opinion, is when we didn’t find what we wanted to. We then moved from self-defense to public relations triage. Our American pride couldn’t just say, “Ok, we made sure this country isn’t a threat and now we’re going away.” We need(ed) some kind of victory.

The name then changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and so on.

I’ve heard it said, by leaders and others, that because we are the strongest, wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth that we have an obligation to help other people. This obligation extends to trying to help people who are oppressed, whether they ask for our help or not. I’m not sure who gave them this obligation or why they “feel” it, because I certainly don’t feel it. Especially when it comes to “helping” people who don’t/can’t/won’t even ask for it.

Hell, the first thing they teach you in first aid class is that unless an injured person is unconscious you have to ask their permission to help them no matter how bad they’re hurt. Failure to do that can end up with you getting sued.

Although I have issue with sending our troops to fight a war for someone else (and I think that putting any of our military under United Nations or NATO command is completely retarded and insane), I think it’s completely stupid and presumptuous to go and start a war “for” someone else when they aren’t even trying to fight for themselves. If a group of “oppressed” people don’t care enough about having freedom to take the initiative, who are we to say that they want really freedom or would know what to do with it if they had it? If there aren’t enough “oppressed” people to rise up and give the current government a good fight, how will they ever have enough people to run a country if the oppressive government is removed?

Iraq is a completely different culture filled with people who think so differently that most of us Americans couldn’t even comprehend it. They have completely different beliefs, values, goals, and ways of doing things. I think it’s very likely that having any kind of elected government that even vaguely resembles our own is impossible in that country or even in that area. I think that the biggest enemy to having a thriving, democratic Iraq isn’t terrorists or insurgents, but the centuries-old Iraqi culture.

I admit it. I voted for Bush.

In a way, I’m a bit ashamed. No, not because I voted for him and “finally came to my senses” as some liberals might wish to point out. I’m ashamed because I bought in to all the political, pointless bullshit that was thrown around and ignored the most important thing of all; finding a candidate that is good for the country and has ideas for solving problems and making America better.

I saw the last Presidential election as a choice between a guy who wasn’t great, but wasn’t terrible (Bush), and a guy I saw as completely incompetent (Kerry). One who couldn’t admit his mistakes (Bush) or one who couldn’t even say something without having to later either “clarify” it because it was stupid, or retract it and correct it by saying, “What I really meant to say was…” (Kerry). One who may have possibly skipped some national guard duty when younger (Bush) or one who may have possibly made up an “I’m a war hero” story because there wasn’t much other reason for people to like him (Kerry).

Looking back, I can’t remember a single time I heard either Bush or Kerry pick a problem to talk about and offer a solution that made me think, “Hey, that’s a good idea.,” or “Hey, that could work.” When they actually DID talk about any kind of issue other than why not to vote for the other guy, all I ever heard was the same shit that people say in every election but never changes the country when the person is in office.

Yes, I’m sick of having so many problems in America. But even more than that, I’m sick of not being able to find people smart enough to fix them. I’m sick of people smiling on TV and in newspapers while they say, “I’ve got a plan to fix this,” when I know full-well (and time later proves me right) that they’re full of shit. I’m sick of not REALLY having choices, because Independent candidates have a much lower chance of winning, and the only things that really separate Democrats and Republicans any more is abortion and gays.

I used to consider myself a Republican, because I’m rather conservative in my thinking and they used to be the “conservative” party. I think that freedom is a good thing and that many times laws do more to infringe on freedom than to protect or “define” it (so I’m not a big fan of having huge volumes of them). I think that people are responsible for their actions and don’t need the government to always dictate to them what they can and can’t do. I think big government is bad. I think that what drove people to success and what made America great in previous generations was that the government DIDN’T provide handouts, kept their hands out of people’s lives much more than now, and it gave people the opportunity to work to make their life what they wanted it to be.

This latest election though I got an absentee ballot. I think that’s SO cool. I got to see every candidate for every position and had the thing in my house so I could look into every single one of them before voting. Personally, I think this is the way to go because there are lots of candidates for things who don’t have money for ads and don’t get publicity and then you go to vote and see a name you don’t recognize. Then that person gets very few votes, even though they may be much smarter and have better ideas than the “major” candidates.

It turned out that I’m really not a Republican any more. My votes ended up going all over and eventually people from five different parties got them.

In all my searching, I only found one candidate, who is running for US Senate in my district, who I looked into and though, “God, if this guy could win and could make his ideas a reality…that would be awesome.”

At least I found one. Plus a little sliver of hope that someday more people like him will run and perhaps we can change things for the better.

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“Twist me with your motivation
You make me sick
Won’t you feel my frustration?
It’s ten feet thick.”
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The Union Underground