PEACE:
Foreign Policy & Terrorism | September 8, 2003
IN
RESPONSE
TO
BUSH'S
SPEECH
ABOUT
THE
ON-GOING
WAR
IN
IRAQ
An
E-Mail to Two Democratic National Committee Members
I
tried to keep an open mind while listening to Bush's speech last
night; and at first, it reminded me of his speech after 9-11 -- an inspirational, rational call to defend our nation against
those who did us great harm. I'm sure that's the effect
this recent speech was intended to have upon the citizenry, and
how most people took it...at least at first.
Upon letting it
sink in, however, one has to ask -- and this should be the tack
the Democrats take in dealing with the swing voters -- was Iraq
really the "central front" of the war on terror?
(It would do no good to argue that no one out there does indeed
mean us no harm) Or has Bush spent lives, money, and
international goodwill in the wrong place? Would not those
sacrifices have been better made elsewhere? Would not the
international goodwill that now even he admits we need have been
better nurtured than squandered? He spoke glowingly of
two-thirds of Al Qaeda's leaders being captured or killed; but
weren't most of them taken by, or at least with the
indispensable help of, our allies?
We might be able
to make the case to a lot of people that Bush intentionally
misled the country into war in Iraq (although there is more than
ample evidence to support the case, it is hard to impugn a man's
character, especially if he seems sincere to most people); but
it is a much easier case to make that even if he meant well,
Bush made a big mistake: Saddam Hussein was no saint, but
going after him was not the best next step in our war on
terror...and now, we've tied up too many of our resources, in
military power and tens or eventually hundreds of billions of
dollars in monetary commitments, to continue the work that needs
to be done elsewhere.
Before, I thought
that if we suffered another devastating terrorist attack before
the next election, the people would rally again behind the
President; but now I'm not so sure -- Bush has put his
credibility on the line that all the sacrifices we're making are
making us safer. But I truly don't believe he's made the
best use of our resources to get that job done; and I'm sure I'm
not alone in the belief, that fear.
Just so long as
the people realize we're not trying to make political hay out of
a life-and-death struggle; rather, we're sincerely trying to do
the best we can for our nation as a whole, and for
freedom...which is not just the cause of the GOP but of all
loyal Americans, Democrats included.
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