This weekend has been deadly for our troops in Iraq. Twelve of the bravest men and women in America were killed on Saturday, ten of these deaths happening in Baghdad. The death toll for American troops is now 3560.
There seemed to be some reconciliation going on, though. This morning, peace talks between warring Shiite and Sunni tribes were going on in a Baghdad hotel called the Mansour Hotel. They met in the hotel lobby and the tribal sheikhs, along with some of their warriors and assistants, were discussing ways to end the violence. Unfortunately, a suicide bomber blew himself and the seven sheikhs, along with atleast five others, after targetting the hotel and detonating his bombs once he got there. Excluding the tribal warriors and sheikhs, an Iraqi journalist and civilians were killed and the hotel was absolutely gutted.
Yet our "fearless" leader, George Dubya, has still not gotten us any closer to leaving Iraq. Look, let's be realistic here. Do you really, truly believe, that we will ever reach stability in Iraq? Not us. Not America. It can not happen. The only way stability will ever be reached in Iraq is if Iraqis reach it. And, right now, that doesn't seem to even be plausible. Tribes were negotiationg nonviolent ways to resolve matters in Iraq, yet look what happened to them! They were all killed. They were killed for trying to bring stability to Iraq. Stability will not be a word associated with Iraq until America leaves and years of a revolution have gone by.
Revolution. In the late 1700's, America went through one. We should all know the story, as long as you paid even the slightest bit of attention in American History classes- Britain controlled us, we didn't like it, "No Taxation Without Representation", the Olive Branch Petition, yadda yadda yadda. What happened? Americans went through an American Revolution to take over what was theirs. We didn't have foreign soldiers helping us. We didn't have hundreds of thousands of French soldiers showing up in our villages and fighting for us. All we had was French aid- some money, some weapons, and a lot of encouragment. But Americans fought for it, and Americans lost their lives. The only way a revolution can be properly waged is if the revolutionaries make the sacrifices. The only way to achieve a Republic is for the citizens to fight for it. You can not have an outside force fight your revolution and then give you a Republic; that is plainly not how things work. Yet, right now, we are trying to do that in Iraq.
We need to leave Iraq. If we truly want that nation to have any chance for peace and stability, we need to allow Iraq to be Iraq. We need to allow a year or four of a violent revolution to take place, in order for stability to be reached. We will never have enough troops in Iraq to create stability, because America can not do it. Iraq needs to do it. Iraqi civilians need to fight for it.
In other news...
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be coming out on July 21. I don't know about you, but I am pretty psyched for that. I know, I know, it isn't the usual political news. But come on! It is Harry Potter. This book, though it may not seem it, does have a lot of political references in it. But, I am not going to make it political- I just love the series. The book will answer a lot of questions that us fans have- is Dumbledore really dead?, where are Snape's allegiances?, what are the other horcruxes?, what were Harry's parents' professions?, who will die (atleast two main characters)?, etc. etc. Any ideas? Email me your ideas!
Take care,
Bob Wit
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