Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Another Soldier Tells us why he lost faith in the Bush Administration

Look, I am not just making this stuff up. Another Soldier tells his story. These are very compelling reasons why we need a regiem change right here. March on great voters!

Two thoughts to leave you with: We really need to toss the electoral college out. It is useless and unnecessary. Second, might we empower our soldiers a bit more if they were given two votes for our one if they are serving on the front lines in the line of fire? Hummm, just a thought.

Slice from the story:

"I can never be the man I was before I left for Iraq. I had a lot of faith. I was a true believer in the administration's justification for the war – about the weapons of mass destruction and Iraq being an imminent threat. I believed in what we were doing when we were over there.

That belief I had in the administration allowed me to balance what I was seeing, what I was experiencing, what I was a part of. With all that death and destruction – the deaths of soldiers and Iraqi civilians who were caught in the crossfire – it helped that I believed that it was all for a greater good...

...So in terms of change, I now don't have any faith in the policymakers of this administration. We all collectively as a nation allowed ourselves – and I was part of that – to fall for this "You're either with us or against us" and therefore "You're either a patriot or with the terrorists" thinking. And if those are the only two choices, then of course I'm a patriot.

So one of the things that has changed for the positive is that it helped me realize that true patriotism is questioning our leaders. That's what our country is founded on. That's what men like me put our lives on the line to defend. So protesting the war does not equate with protesting those of us in uniform. It's not unpatriotic to want to get our guys home from the war zone.

...My fear is obviously the opposite – that for whatever reason, a majority of Americans haven't seen the truth yet or refuse to look at the truth. So this administration will not just be in power for four years, but that it will be four years when they are not accountable for their actions – because we don't get a chance to vote them out of office.

My fear is that the war will escalate and so will the human toll – both for our soldiers and Iraqi civilians. I fear that it will become my son's problem. That the next generation of Americans will be paying the price for the mistakes we make today. That 15-16 years from now, they will reap what we sow today..."

end of slice

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