The invasion of Iraq was never about Weapons of Mass Destruction, we know. The redeployment of troops from the war in Afghanistan to Iraq was never about a war against terrorism, as is made obvious from our lack of troop deployment to Sudan, or Zimbabwe. The move to topple Saddam Hussein, was never about bringing peace and democracy to a nation which supposedly suffered under the tyrannical rule of the man we found hiding in a crudely dug hole in the desert. George Bush gave us a number of excuses as to why he allowed Dick Cheney the attempt at implanting an Iraqi government with whom it would be easier to cut business deals. Cheney couldn’t inflate the coffers of Halliburton with rulers too stubborn to be bullied into giving up their oil. He had eight years to try, and as we can see from the recent news coming from the leader of Iraq, the invasion was never about toppling a dictator to bring peace and democracy to a nation we sympathize with.
Nouri al Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, vehemently denounced the continued occupation of Iraq by our forces, and demanded that all foreign troops leave his country by the year 2011. The promise that our troops would come home when the Iraqi security forces were able to secure their country seems to have been forgotten now that George Bush and Dick Cheney have balked on their promise, and are now paying lip-service to al Maliki. The plan presented by the Bush Administration shows only combat forces returning to America, but leaving up to 40,000 troops to remain embedded in Iraq indefinitely.
John McCain once told us that it is a general understanding that American forces have the right to invade to occupy a nation that we deem is harmful to world order and peace. Perhaps world order is the dream of the optimist that George Bush would love to be, instead of the straw-man on strings that Cheney stores in a lock box each night. Perhaps the man who mistook an adrenaline rush for the voice of his god telling him how great he is actually is as innocent as one of the many mentally retarded murderers he had executed during his stint as the Texas governor. Perhaps, but as Ted Kennedy said during his speech last night at the Democratic Convention, “…young Americans in uniform must never be committed to a mistake.” As long as George Bush remains suffering from Multiple-Excuse Disorder, and refuses to give Iraq back to the Iraqi’s, then he is committing the treasonous act of committing our troops to a mistake, and will forever wear the bruise that should be shining beneath a cold steak under Dick Cheney’s eye.
photo courtesy of NASA
NASA scientist William Boynton announced the find after the Phoenix Mars Lander “touched and tasted” Martian water on Wednesday. With a robotic arm the lander was able to dig a soil sample and place it in a heating mechanism which captured the water vapors. With this they were able to claim they have definitive proof that water exists on the Red Planet, and have extended Phoenix’s mission by five weeks to try to find if it was ever capable of harboring life. “Cupboard” and “Neverland” will be the upcoming dig sites where the scientists hope to find evidence of microbial life, and with their discovery of water and ice now behind them, the possibility has climbed sharply.
Maybe it isn’t all that strange that NASA named the craft, that’s responsible for finding water where it was never believed to have existed, Phoenix.
photo courtesy of CBS
Doing the right thing is sometimes made difficult when pride gets in the way. Though it’s very possible if one is able to grin and bear it, and especially if a person goes as far to ask themselves, “What is the right thing to do?” In the case of Barack Obama’s choice for a running mate, the best thing to do is to forget about Hillary, be happy knowing she will undoubtedly gain a high ranking position in his cabinet, and leave one’s pride at the door of the voting center this November.
Today, the organizers of “Vote Both”, a group campaigning to gain Clinton’s name in the Vice President’s spot, decided it would be best for the Democratic Party if they were to stop their campaign and redirect their energy into getting those disgruntled Clinton supporters to back Obama. The group’s founders Adam Parkhomenko and Sam Arora pleaded to Clinton’s supporters in an email, “We worked for Hillary for a combined 10 years, so we know how many of you may be feeling,” they wrote, “And to those who are hesitant to support Obama right now, we urge you to keep giving him the chance to earn your vote. We are confident he will.”
Because many of Hillary’s supporters are thinking of voting for John McCain out of revenge for the arduous battle she fought against Obama during the Democratic primary elections, the state of our Union is hanging in the balance. With John McCain’s policies being no more than a carbon copy of those of George W. Bush, our nation cannot afford to have pride being the deciding factor over the presidential election. It’s been assumed for years that those who support Hillary Clinton cared for the health and welfare of our nation more than those who were voting the Republicans into office simply because they associate themselves with that party. Now it looks as though many Democrats care just as little as those that happily watched our nation tank under the Bush regime, leaving us faulty excuses wrought with arrogance.
At least some are doing the right thing, and I tip my hat to those who follow suit with the folks from “Vote Both”. There are those who vote independent of party lines, and those who vote from pride and arrogance. The latter has been leading our country into the depths for 8 years, and it’s highly important the Democrats wake up their constituents to avoid at least 4 more years of America’s sinking in the mire.
