Author: Laurence Vance

At least this time he does. The former Secretary of State recently said on CBS’s “Face the Nation”: “I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work.”

Bush’s order for 20,000 more troops to be sent into the Iraq quagmire has resulted in some additional calls to end this evil war. But who can stop it? Can anyone stop it? Because there is only serious opposition from a few members of Congress, the war will continue to be funded. The public continues to post “support the troops” signs. Evangelical Christian “leaders” continue to make excuses for Bush and his war. The only ones who can stop this war now are the troops themselves. After all, it is the troops who are bringing death and destruction to Iraq, not Bush and the writers at National Review. If they stop, the war will stop. To begin with, all 20,000 bodies of fresh meat should refuse to go to Iraq. Next, every soldier home on leave should refuse to go back. Then–and this will be the most difficult–every soldier in Iraq should try to come home. All this may sound simplistic, but I see no other way of ending the war now, instead of in four more years. If the troops don’t stop it now, the war will eventually end, but how many more American soldiers will needlessly die before it does? And even then, after the U.S. government officially ends the war–what happens next? Will it end like Vietnam with a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces or will it end like Japan and Korea with the permanent deployment of U.S. troops? The billion-dollar embassy in Baghdad leads me to believe that it will be the latter.

This “Dialogue Session with President Bush” gets my vote for the funniest Bush video ever.

According to a CNN story linked to by this site today, nine U.S. troops were killed in Iraq over the weekend.  Let’s stop and think for a minute what this means. It means that nine families were told today by the U.S. government that their father, husband, son, or brother died in Iraq. It means that nine families have nothing to celebrate this Christmas. It means that nine families are experiencing untold grief and anguish. What makes all of this even worse, of course, is that these dead U.S. soldiers died for a lie. Do the families of these soldiers realize this? I can’t imagine the disgust I would feel if one of my family members died for this administration’s Iraq policy. When oh when will Congress stop funding this senseless war?

To see the effect of this war on the freedom of the press, note that the 2006 Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders ranks the United States 53rd out of 168 countries. Finland, Iceland, Ireland, and the Netherlands tied for first place. The United States was tied with Botswana, Croatia, and Tonga.

In reply to those who point out that we defeated the Nazis in less time than we have now been fighting in Iraq, National Review (Sept. 25, 2006) agrees that it only took three years and five months to defeat Germany, but then adds: “But is that how long it took to defeat the Nazis in Europe? Try telling that to Britain (bombed August-October 1940), France (conquered June 1940), or Poland (invaded September 1939).” Okay, National Review, once we have been in Iraq longer than the time between Germany bombing Britain, conquering France, and invading Poland, and surrendering, what logic will you use to justify the war then?