This is mostly a stream of conscience kind of thing.



Does anyone else ever feel completely hopeless and useless as to what's happening with this country? I mean, just today.. Bush's newest executive order basically destroys our right to protest. Wiretapping evading right to privacy. Not even these big issues. Even smaller ones, like Homeland (In)Security. Just recently, at the airport closest to me (Albany), a test was done covertly. A fucking bomb made it through. These people are all so fucking caught up in there OMG YOU HAVE 3.0000000001 OZ's of water, it's a fucking bomb!!!!111 to even catch anything important. I'm generally a conservative. I don't think money should be spent frivolously and certainly keep your debts manageable, if you have to have any. But with a national debt into the trillions. Mostly due to a war that Bushy boy (who I actually defended against when disliking bush was becoming the cool thing) won't even open his eyes to what's going on. How can 70% of the american people want out of this war, and our government (who's job, paycheck, and general reason for even being there, is the american people) be so god damn ignorant and blind? All we ever hear about are tax cuts tax cuts TAX CUTS. A fucking baby knows spending spending spending without taking in more money can't last. Take enough from the child without putting any in and it's bound to be pissed. It's just frustrating as hell with rights being eroded and the majority of the American public complacent and happy as long as American Idol is on at the right time. At times, more so lately then ever before... I just want to break down in cry in hopelessness. I can vote, but that's about it. It won't really count. I generally wouldn't ever vote Democrat (not out of party stance, just don't agree with most democrats on most issues) and that's all my state ever goes. So my vote is pretty much worthless. Bush keeps saying pulling out is a sign of weakness. NO. Not halving half a fucking brain, enough to see that there IS no end in sight, you can NOT win a war with no reasons for war, THAT is a fucking weakness.

I don't know. It's terrible. I'm just... blah. I swear, this country will probably have to hit rock bottom before it has a chance at recovering. And once it gets that low, who knows.

Well the reason for the war is clear: To prevent the spread of terrorism. If we were to pull out, then Iraq would become one big terrorist breeding ground.

Now have we handled the war wrong? Absolutely! The reason why we can't win is because we have become a bunch of WIMPS. We treat wars as if they're a game of chess or something. "Oh, we can't do this. Oh, we mustn't do that." When you're fighting in a war, the one and only goal should be to WIN, damn it! It's our whole attitude about it that has hurt our progress the most.

This war can't be won.

Why does jr insist on his way? Like the "Blues Brothers" but not even close to cool.

jr is on a mission from God. He's trying to bring on the end days.

That reason is as clear as the WMD's that got us there.... except they never found any. Iraq is already a one big terrorist breeding ground, mostly because we went there.

What I stated is jr's truth.

I will agree with that statement entirely.

Indeed, now get that into Bush's head! This war on terror isn't going to go away over night, I reckon we are looking at least 15 years of this shit. We need to tackle terrorism on all fronts, not just physically. But education wise, we need to stop those few crazy ass imans preaching crazy ass deranged shit. We need to recognise that not every Muslim is a terrorist, only with co-operation from everyone against terrorism can we overcome this great evil.

I for one am very scared for this world, this is a huge turning point in history. What happens in these next few years could decide what world my children and your children live in.

That's exactly it. What happens, isn't much of a concern to me. But like you said, this is a huge turning point and I'm scared of what this world might be like. And unfortunately the real issue is... what can you do about it?

But define "winning" for me...

In a military way, the victory seems clear: Saddam is out of office, the entire Iraqi army was blown back to the level of a third-world African mini country and all of this happened with minimal loss of American lives.

So that seems like a win to me.

The entire problem starts with: what after that?

And I'm stunned that people who are running the administration, running the intelligence services, running the white house always seem to succeed in making the exact same errors over and over again. This is just another proof of how it is IMPOSSIBLE to bring democracy to a nation by taking over and occupying it. This is just another proof that the domino theory is false.

Is it blind belief in ideals? Is it our Western mentality that we know best? I just don't know. I'm sure that in a few years (decades?) America will enter a new war, and the new president will again use the domino theory. Will again talk about the spreading of democracy.

Don't know about you guys, but to me this Iraq war is turning out as the worsest ever fought by the USA. Again, not because of losing it (the victory was there), but because the outcome seems to bring the complete opposite of why the USA started it in the first place: To make a stable democracy in the Middle East, with close® ties to the West to come to a new alternative oil supplier for Saudi-Arabia.

We now have a new breeding ground and learning site for Islamic terrorists, you see an improving influence of the surrounding states (including Iran) while Western influence is shrinking by the day, Iraq became the new timebomb that can set of the entire Middle East because of the Shia-Sounni division... And the idea of Iraq as a stable oil supllier now seems a bit "optimistic" in the forseeable future.

I'm 100% convinced America will not bring back the troops. If you look at the previous paragraph, you can see where that can bring us: a civil war that has all the potential to become a regional one (Syria, Saudi-Arabia, Iran, Turkey,... Israel(?)). A regional war in the gas station of the world... The world economy will love that.

Sure, and people don't understand: What are we doing there now? We are trying to maintain order in the country so that it doesn't revert back to being ruled by dictators and thugs. If we were to pull out right now, it would just become a safe haven for terrorists to set up their camps and plot more attacks around the world. If we want to ensure that doesn't happen, we won't be out of there anytime soon. This could take many years - and it is true that we weren't planning for that.

It's a distraction. To grab money & blame others.