As our efforts in Afghanistan increasingly become unstuck, it may be a good idea to remember that Iraq had NOTHING to do with 911. It would probably be advantageous to recall that most of the 911 operatives were from our Saudi Arabian friends(?(Primarily because of oil and a loyal friendship with the Bush's)). The success of the 911 operation is also apparently due to a lack of vigilance on the part of our government. Our country has been more or less wallowing in self pity and anger related to the 911 operation. We HAD an opportunity to deal with Al-Qaeda after the successful invasion of Afghanistan, but inexplicably most of our troops and nearly 100% of our attention was immediately diverted to Iraq. With 20-20 hindsight, all but the most rabid believers can see that this was a misguided mistake. I would guess that in part this is caused by a military industrial complex that is set up to fight a cold war (or possibly a repeat of ww2). Generals are always best at fighting the last war they won.
Cynical use of the 911 operation for political gain is a despicable example of the politics of division. (See Carl Rove) Our current regime cannot seem to admit ANY errors, but the rats keep jumping off of the sinking ship. Republicans cannot with good conscience or honesty continue to blame their problems on the Democrats. They have been in power all through the 80's and with the exception of Clinton, the 90's, and in absolute control from 2000 to 2006.
We cannot protect our country by effectively ignoring Al-Qaeda and continuing to pour our citizens and treasury into the Iraq military industrial complex profit center. It is time to admit the the Muslim majority in the middle east is not buying what GW has been trying to sell.
The worst part is that I cannot see any candidate that is going to do anything but line his (or her) pockets. It looks like we are in for a rocky ride, brush up on your Spanish and or Chinese... Oh, and start reading the quaran.
08/27/07