Weighing in on the War in Iraq

I remember watching the news on September 11th, 2001. I was glued to the television for hours, calling my friends who were stuck at work, unable to leave. I believed that a military response was necessary to the horror that has become forever glued in my memory.
For a moment, I even thought that perhaps President Bush was more capable of handling a military response than the Democrat I voted for. I was all for going after Bin Laden, and I believe we'll never know all that transpired in our country that particular September day, nor will we ever know all that has transpired since, in the name of protecting the Homeland.
Our civil rights have eroded in the name of security, yet most Americans don't feel any safer now then we did four years ago. Personally, I feel less safe. I think our airports and some of our transportation systems may be safer, but you have to admit, (if you are well read, and listen to more than just Fox News,) we are at war in Iraq because of a lie construed in the back rooms of government offices both here and in Britain. The conservative media calls me and other thinking people traitors because we believe that our calling this war illegal will cause acts of terrorism in response. What a sad nod to our fading democracy, once the light that shined freedom to the rest of the world. Is it no wonder that so many of our allies were wary regarding our entry into this war against Iraq? Our President knew there were no weapons of mass distruction in Iraq before he misled the United States Congress into giving him the power to declare war. I feel ashamed of the way our country, once the proudest nation on Earth, has handled itself during this President's administration.
We have an arrogant President who sees any apology or acknowledgement of wrong doing as a personal weakness. There is no strength in being unable to admit one's shortcomings.
And so his poll numbers continue to drop. Doesn't anyone else notice? My final thoughts are actually someone else's. I hope they don't mind.
-t.

When a man is wrong and won't admit is, he always gets angry.
Thomas C. Haliburton

No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
French author & moralist (1613 - 1680)

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.
Leo Tolstoy
Russian mystic & novelist (1828 - 1910)

One of the hardest things in this world is to admit you are wrong. And nothing is more helpful in resolving a situation than its frank admission.
Benjamin Disreali