George W Bush, His Legacy

You Are the "Unpatriotic" One Mr. Bush!!

Your twisted mind probably can't comprehend why so many Americans despise your actions and your overinflated ego is borderline paranoid bringing to mind images of other leaders from several countries we call dictatorships.
Under your administration we have become a parody of ourselves as a country preaching democracy elsewhere and even trying to impose it at any cost while our own basic principles of freedom, free speech and justice have been attacked by your actions.
When you call those of us who want to see our troops back home "unpatriotic" you are giving the word a new meaning with the intention of labeling us as traitors.
Truth is that wanting to have our soldiers back in our land is probably the most patriotic thing we can do, preserving their lives and letting them protect our soil while resuming their normal lives with their families. What is really unpatriotic is to offer a glossy view of the situation in Iraq and asking those men and women to sacrifice their time and ultimately perhaps their lives pursuing your own narrow and impossible agenda. It's not only unpatriotic on your part but outright immoral.
Keith Olberman on September 20th went even further Watch Olberman's Comment
And our own troops have the same concern we do Watch Our Troops Speak

Petraeus - A good man in the hot chair

As usual with this poor administration, we were presented with yet another smoke and mirrors report regarding the situation in Iraq. This time the spoke person was David Petraeus, a seasoned general, a good man and I’d guess very well intentioned in his responses.

The problem is that Petraeus is not the person to ask about what’s going on in Iraq. His mission is one and only one: Try to reestablish order in a chaotic country. And he has performed his duty, as others in the past, to the best of his ability. That’s part of his job as a military. Given sufficient personnel, guns and ammunition, soldiers can provide some sense of security here and there, as long as their presence is felt by opposing forces, sometimes by elimination others by attrition. However, our soldiers are not a part of Iraq, and everyone in that region knows it of course, making any improvement temporary at best.

Generals are trained to defeat armies, not establish new societies and as much as they may try, just the perception of the population affected by their actions works against any reasonable solution. I guess what I’m trying to say is that no one can create peace among different factions by the force of arms.
Someone must win and other will loose.

Yes, our soldiers and those in charge are doing what they’re asked with diligence and sacrifice, whether they believe in the mission or not - as soldiers do in any army - but the armed forces and leaders of such force can’t predict results, except in the combat aspect. Either they are winning, loosing or are in a stalemate. And as far as our military in Iraq the best it can be said is that it’s a draw.

And there are reasons for it, way beyond the control of any general or the best soldier. The main one is that there is not a clear enemy to defeat. Of course the Al Qaeda ghostly image is present, but that is a very loose and ambiguous army, nearly impossible to define. According to our government we’d like to bring stability to the region but nothing can be done to that end unless the main characters - the Iraqis themselves - do something about it.

The only possible solution, which our leaders in the White House refuse to accept so far, it’s a combined diplomatic effort including all of the surrounding countries and their leaders, if for no other reason simply because they know better than ourselves the inner works of every faction at play. We must face the reality that the so-called Arab World and its idiosyncrasies are different than ours Westerners. Neither being better than the other but unique.

Timetables, goals, charts, and other planning devices will never work if force-feeding is involved. The Iraqi people and their neighbors must find a solution of their own, and they could, only if we leave and have them face their reality without a false sense of either security or occupation, depending on who they are in their own internal political scheme.

Are we concerned about a potential massacre if we leave the country? Well, not to many seem to be concerned about other regions of the World were murder; mass killings and starvation are an everyday occurrence.

It’s there a sense of guilt in all of this, after invading a country that posed no threat to us, destroying their economy and creating a resentful population? Probably. But that won’t change by mere force, ever.
If our leaders want to save some face, this is the right time. Iraq is no longer the domain of a dictator and now they can have their country back, for good or evil, it’s up to them. In fact, it was time to leave the scene way back when, but who’s counting?