July 15, 2007

Dear Sis~

I saw on the national network news that President Bush's "approval rating" has hit an all-time low of 29%, and I'm wondering who in the hell these 29% are and what in the world are they thinking? History will not be kind to Bush (or anyone in his administration for that matter) who must certainly be considered the most incompetent president in the last 100 years. It's encouraging to see that the general American public is finally coming to its senses and seeing Bush for the empty suit he's always been, but it's equally discouraging that it's taken them 6+ years to realize the obvious, to stop drinking the Kool-Aid and to see that the emperor is wearing no clothes. It's also discouraging to me that none of the Democratic presidential candidates are willing to state the obvious truth, solution and reality about what will occur if we simply pull out of Iraq. The pro-war folks keep asserting that "it will be a bloodbath" and "the whole region will go up in flames", or some version thereof, in order to justify the mindless "stay the course" strategy. And the Democrats can't seem to conjure up a response to this baseless assertion. Given that the Iraqi government itself has zero interest in a peaceful solution to the religious violence and that the majority of Shiites will dominate the country, as they presently do, it's inevitable that there will be a continuation of the current civil war after we leave until one side (the Shiites) win. At some point ( and we're past that point) a nation must work out its own manifest destiny, and it might be a messy and violent process. What's so wrong with that? America went through this when we had our own civil war; it was something that we, as a nation, had to work out. Can you imagine where America might be now if, during our civil war, another superpower (say, England) had physically intervened and invaded us in order to control & dictate the outcome of our civil war? What if England had done his and favored the Confederacy or had, at least, created conditions making it impossible for the North to prevail? America as we know it would not exist. Almost all nations, at some point, go through a civil war and the world doesn't end when it occurs. When we pulled out of Vietnam there was a violent culmination, for sure, but the nation was quickly united (albeit under a Communist regime) and the world didn't end. Today Vietnam is a united, peaceful country, in control of its own destiny (and becoming increasingly capitalistic). My point is: let the Iraqis fight it out and settle their own dispute (it's all religious based anyway and we have no business mediating that fight). Yeah, it will be violent and folks will die (as they are dying anyway) but in the end it will pass and someone will prevail. At least American troops won't be dying in vain. Why do Democrats find it so hard to respond with this obvious solution when the warmongers challenge them? We need to get the Hell out and let the Iraqis fight it out among themselves. Whatever happens, the world won't end...that's a guarantee.
Love,
Bill