WHEN DO WE CARE ENOUGH?

As I listened to the "pretend" outrage this evening over former candidate John Kerry's remarks which he apparently intended as criticism of President Bush and some of his minions and then turned upside down by the President and all the "talking heads" of the Republican Party (including John Mc Cain who will do anything to curry favor with the "base") I was moved to raise a few questions.

Does anyone actually believe that John Kerry (or any other politician) would stand in front of national microphones and say (with conviction and fore thought) that all of our troops serving and dying in Iraq are "stupid"? On the other hand, Senator Kerry and those who write for him are surely less than brilliant for putting out a comment like this that could and was interpreted as a dig about our troops. My advice is to stop trying the subtle jokes and just present YOUR plan to fix this mess!

Can we "trust" the current group in power when it bombards the airwaves with their babble saying that Kerry (and all Democrats through "guilt by association") doesn't support the troops in Iraq when they absolutely KNOW that isn't factual? This is once again an example of diverting the real issue (that being the disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan) by trying to stir people up over the ill advised comments of an ex-presidential candidate or anyone else that calls our current direction into question.

At what point will "we the people" start demanding that United States military personnel stop being used as "politcal pawns" in our absurd election cycles? U.S. military personnel are NOT Republicans and are NOT Democrats (or any other political party)! They ARE however, individuals that are following the orders of their superiors and being placed in harm's way and bleeding and dying every day. They don't get the opportunity to ask if their daily mission came from a Republican or a Democrat and then decide if they will care it out. I would submit that 98% of our troops want one thing more than all others. They want to get this mess finished and COME HOME to their families and the "relative safety" of the American streets! They want their country and it's leaders to CARE ENOUGH about THEM to make the decisions necessary to get them out of the killing zone VERY SOON and stop making excuses for policy failures.

I have been shaking my head for close to 5 YEARS now as I watched and listened to the President of the United States of America (who at least in theory if not in practice is supposed to be the LEADER of ALL AMERICANS) and virtually every other Republican who gets in front of a microphone assert that any person (but especially any Democrat) who states any objection to "our" War policy (or pretty much any other policy) is, by inference, "un-American" and doesn't care about "the troops". This, to me, is not only an extreme insult to at least half of the American people but equally insulting to our troops! I would submit that a substantial number of our military personnel come from families that are not in the Republican party and have had to listen to the current administration infer that THEIR family members are un-American or unpatriotic because they have questioned the policies of this government. This CAN'T be good for morale!

I have also been shaking my head at the Democrats who have run around criticizing the "war" and other policies of the current administration without offering a viable plan of their own. I heard a Democratic leader the other day say that there isn't any point in offering "their plan" when they don't have the votes to make it happen. This postion is equally wrong to that of the current administration and shows that the Democrats are just as guilty of politicizing the "war" and an indication that they too, do not care as much about our troops under fire as they do about political posturing. If there are ideas or possible plans resting in the desks of Democrat leaders and any of those ideas could save the life of even one of our troops, bring them into the light of day and show that you CARE ENOUGH to do the right thing without concern for votes or political power.

To get to the main point of this posting I ask; "When do we care enough?"

When do we care enough to stop this insanity? Everyday this month, it seemed like some kind of numbers game as all the media became obsessed by the American body count. Would the death toll be "the most since" or would the death toll reach 100 for the month? THIS IS NOT A GAME!!! We are losing REAL PEOPLE with REAL FAMILIES and it needs to STOP! But as I've written in other posts, we "love" our numbers here in America and heck, we haven't even "lost" 3,000 troops yet. Our losses in Iraq to date are "minimal" when compared to Vietnam or Korea or WWII, so what's all the concern about anyway? We need to have five or ten or fifteen times the current number of dead Americans before "we the people" will get sickened enough to care, right? We also have the option of realizing that as horrific as our other "wars" were in the past, the numbers of death or destruction should not be a source of comparison to our current situation. We also have the option to test this "pro-life" philosophy circulating through this country and CARE ENOUGH (on both sides of the political aisle) about the NEXT dead soldier to commit ALL our resources to getting our young men and women OUT of harm's way. This will NOT be accomplished by continuing to "fight" this "war" in a manner well suited to the enemy (be they "insurgents", terrorists, or sectarian rival factions). It is not shameful for the current administration to just admit this and change the tactics. It is not shameful in a "war" situation to pull back and regroup and change the plan. If George Custer hadn't been so stubborn and arrogant he wouldn't have led all his men (and himself) into a slaughter that got all the soldiers killed.

The debacle in Iraq (and oh by the way Afghanistan as well) is bleeding the United States not only of irreplaceable human lives of our troops but also of huge financial resources and the reputation and "aura" of the United States of America as a respected and dominant country on this planet. When "fighting" a war against an enemy that shows even less regard for life than we do there is no end (a lesson we should have learned in Korea and Vietnam) because any thoughts of victory by attrition are fruitless. The statements of "winning" we hear from our President and others are meaningless if their definition of "winning" means that every last person we are fighting must either "give up" or is dead before "victory" is claimed. Once that premise is accepted as FACT there might be a chance of finding a different approach to this growing crisis. There are alternatives that can be employed (some of which may be viewed as harsh) and our troops deserve better than to be slowly killed in the streets of Iraq or Afghanistan.

"We the people" need to stand up and DEMAND that the so-called "leaders" of America stop playing politics and dividing us into "Red or Blue" or "Republicans or Democrats" and GET THE JOB DONE!!! The wounds to America and its people (many self-inflicted) are becoming so deep that very soon, even if we "win", it won't matter because we will have become a nation so filled with hate for our fellow citizens that we will have lost our sense of identity as Americans and as human beings.

It is Time To Think Again!