Blogbat

Martin, I will link to this video immediately..I cant stop crying.......Thank You.

When I first heard this song nearly a year ago I knew I had to do something with it for today - because it instantly reminded me of 9/11 and moved me very much so. It's not as if the artist had this in mind when she wrote it - it was two or more years before 9/11. But somehow its honesty and the words fit as if they had been. In fact, the tone of the whole album is like that, despite the fact it's impossible to know how it could be. I don't know how either, but those of us who personally have known grief do know the depths that natural grieving can and must go. We are all sad, yet our memories make us hopeful; partly because the good that we remember lives on inside us still today and refines us and makes each of us better. The images from 9/11 should never be forgotten because they too are part of that process (not to mention a reminder of why we must fight and win this war which we have no choice but to win).

How many times must you be told Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terror.

Justifying Iraq with the war on terror , is the third or fourth reason the politicians in our government have given us, remember?
1)WMD's
2)Liberating Iraqis from a dictator who had rape rooms,
3)Bringing Democracy

This Libertarian says they are lying to you.

Drew, always glad to have libertarians drop in, even when they do stray slightly off topic on this post if their thesis had been correct. Nevertheless, I think you bring up something worth chatting about a bit. But first let's separate what I think from everything coming out of all sides in Washington. If you read this blog much, you should know by now I'm no sycophant. You're right in saying that the three reasons you listed are the top three reasons most pols used for their talking points prior to the invasion. Yet, whether they see it or not there exists a very big strategic reason why Iraq plays such a crucial role in US strategic foreign policy objectives, specifically, the war on offensive Islamofascism. But before I tell you what that is, Drew, I want you to go into the closet in your other room and find a world map; when you find it come back, okay? .....
....

Okay, I'll assume you found that map hiding in a closet or drawer somewhere at chez toi. Now I want you to first find Iraq, then Iran and Syria.

Now if you've been following the news (which I assume you do, since most of my friends who are libertarians are actually quite well informed), then you are aware of the links between Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda, each other, and so forth, and how these terrorist fronts are really nothing more than proxies for the aforementioned governments to conduct rogue politics on the world around them. You may have even heard how the Iranians are trying to build a nuclear bomb. They already have the hardware to do it and I bet you also know they have nabbed plenty of Uranium 235 - that's what you need to make a bomb (238 is less volatile and usually used for reactors).

So, forget about the politicians (you, as a libertarian should value that advice), what reality is on the ground should matter much more than the rhetoric. And honestly, it sounds as if you're already getting there.

Now, what I would like to see from this administration is some aggressive covert ops inside Iran and Syria - not just SIGINT, but aggressive human intelligence gathering and some good old fashioned provocateurs. Right now, the sewer water is definitely flowing the wrong way into Iraq - and this should irritate the heck out of all of us, as I'm sure it does our guys on the ground. We need to reverse that flow, and outside of risking our other strategic interests, we need to put as many resources there to make it happen as possible. The fact is, Iraq is linked to the war and was before we went there. It was an act of genius (known or not) that we went in there and incredible fortune that we had ostensible reasons (which everyone truly believed at the time) to do it. But since this is not the Barney the Dinosaur program, what should matter more than how we *feel* about how the initial deed was done, is what we should be doing now. I happen to think common sense dictates we exploit the once-in-a-lifetime advantage offered to us right now. If we cut and run or just “stay the course”, we have failed.