southernloyalty

I was goin' to type out an entry about this weekend, but the election shit is the only thing on my mind right now. I'll get that entry later. If you guys don't want to read a political rant, you are entitled to stop reading now. I'm telling you right now..it's a damn good rant.

The election is finally over. I'm pissed off a 3rd party wasn't on my ballot and I hate usin' my vote to vote for that lesser of the two evils nonsense. I want another political party to come out of the ranks and actually have this country's best interests at heart. Sounds like something simple to ask for, but it isn't. I hate democrats and republicans the same, No matter who won, I didn't see things getting better for the common working class man or woman. I hate Kerry, but I did want someone else in the white house. After thinking about it though, I'm glad George Bush won. Not because I support the republican party...that's absolutely further from the truth. My reasoning for this is largely due to Iraq. I do support my friends over there, but I don't agree with the war at all. If any of you are Midtown Bootboys fans, they have a song called "Rich Man's War" and that song rings absolutely true. I think this war was a huge mistake. It was not just a monumental mistake to invade at all, but the invasion and occupation itself has been catastrophically incompetent. Great we got Saddam out of office, but there are other countries that pose greater threats to our country. Since we are in Iraq now and helpin' them, I'm glad for it....but I don't think this war is ever really going to end.

People ask me how I think we can win, and the simple truth is, I don't think we can. The situation we're in now is not something we can "win," there's no government to "surrender," and no formal organization fighting us to throw in the towel. With the exception of the unknown numbers of foreign fighters and terrorists, all experts on the topic seem to agree that at least the vast majority of the insurgents are the Iraqis themselves.

So unless we want to "destroy the village" to save it, we're now immersed in a checkmate of sorts. Our troops, although amazing soldiers, are not peacekeepers. They are not policemen. And they are not trained to be guerrilla fighters. They're basically just a bunch of targets whizzing around in Humvees.

I think the greatest cause of instability in Iraq right now is our presence. I think we have only one option in Iraq, and that's to leave. I see no way around that.

Of course, if we left, I think there's an overwhelming possibility of a civil war, in which untold numbers of innocent civilians (and not-so-innocent combatants) will die. The Iraqi police and soldiers that we train get massacred as fast as we can train them, and I don't see how we can "succeed" in securing the country. So we are left with two options as I see it: Stay and cause instability, or leave and cause instability. The Iraqis have a right to choose their own destiny, whether or not they'll form a democracy or a theocracy, and how they're going to get to that point. The simple fact is that they cannot choose their own destiny when they are occupied by a foreign army.

So we have to leave.

I think John Kerry's claim that he can "win the war" in Iraq, or even salvage the situation is complete and utter bullshiteither he's stupid or he's a liar. Regardless we have to leave Iraq in the next four years. Leaving may cause untold problems in Iraq. If that happens, I want it to be on Bush's shoulders.

Look, this is his fucking war. He started it, his administration planned it, and his administration botched it. I want his administration to see it through to it's end. I want them totally responsible for everything that happens in Iraq. I don't want one single thing to be blamed on John Kerry. Had he won inheriting a totally unsalvageable situation, anything that went wrong in Iraq would have been jumped on by the right, "Hah! See? We told you John Kerry couldn't handle it!" regardless of whether or not Bush could have handled it any better. Kerry's failure to "win" Iraq would have forever be counted against the Democrats for the next several decades.

No, this is Bush's mess, and I want him to finish it.

There is also the possibility, however, that Bush's grand plan will work: He will pacify Iraq, Democracy will bloom and spread throughout the Middle East, liberating the region's people from their oppressive regimes. I somehow doubt this very much. However, should pigs fly and he pulls it off, he deserves the credit for that also. Succeed or fail in Iraq, Bush deserves the credit for what happens.

On the domestic front, my reasoning is once again long-sighted. The short-term effects of another four years of Bush are said to be "disastrous" for this country. I agree and I disagree. I don't think he'd ever succeed at banning abortion (not without starting our own civil war), but he'd certainly manage to do some more damage economically, environmentally, etc.

But maybe that's what we need.

Look, the Republicans have primary control over all arms of the government. OK, fuckers, show us what you can do. This is your chance (you've already had two years). Put your money where your mouth is. This is their chance to really push all the issues that they stand for: smaller government, fiscal responsibility, less social programs, etc. Do it. Let's see how it works.

See, my suspicion is that it won't work. They won't accomplish what they've always talked about, and the things that they will accomplish will finally wake the rest of America up to their true agendas. As more middle-American families slide into poverty, perhaps they'll see that some things are far more important to this country than banning gay marriages. I don't know. But at the end of another four years of Bush, we'll either be decidedly better off, or decidedly worse off.

If we're worse off, then I bet we won't see another Republican in the white House for a decade and a half. Perhaps we need that backlash. I didn't think Kerry could fix Bush's mistakes in four years, and had Kerry been elected, his failure to reverse Bush's incompetence will guarantee he wouldn't be re-elected, and possibly open the White House to another Republican in 2008.

A few months ago, I had several conversations with a buddy about just this topic, and some of his reasons for voting for Bush in this next election are, in his words:

"I feel that our system is flawed by the fact that it is bipartisan and maybe another four years of Bush will finish the Republican Party and cause other parties to fill the void or maybe multiple parties to arise as the Democratic Party splits. I think the potential of America's greatness needs re-centering or correction and this usually occurs in our system after an extreme in one direction. I feel that Bush's alliance with some of the more fundamentalist Christian groups in this country will be more exposed if he wins another fours years and allow for them to be reveled for what they truly are, possibly stripping them of most of their influence. I feel that four more with Dubbya might be the bucket of ice water, that needs to be dumped on people to finally wake them up to the intentions of certain business elements in our country. As weird as this sounds, I think his re-election may bring all of us humility, by this I mean, we have a "path of the righteous" mentality about our Hyper Power status and something like a major failure is what is needed to pimp-slap our country into taking a more humble approach to the world. And of course, maybe he will succeed in bringing down the entire government, by bankrupting it or some other means, at which point hopefully I am around to get together with others and pick up the pieces and put it back together in a better way. I know this sounds sick, but I want to see what happens with another four years of him in office. He is a walking car accident."

Now, I realize that the opinions I have expressed in this entry are open to debate. These are just my opinions, of course. I can be wrong about some, or all of it. I'm not a political analyst, I'm just saying what I think.

I also realize that I somewhat have the luxury of being willing to let Bush ruin this country for another four years. It's easy for me to talk about letting millions of people slide into poverty because I don't have three kids at home to feed; I'm not in a position of financial responsibility for anyone but myselfI have no real dependents. I'm not on welfare, I'm not a pregnant girl.

Every reason I want Bush to win is based on long-term predictions and goals, and is overlooking the short-term effects of another four years of Bush. However, I want that fucker to finish what he started, and I want America to really see the effects of eight years of the this crew of incompetent radical ideologues.

It might be just what we need.