In March 1973, I exhaled a sigh of relief when the last major combat troops left South Vietnam. Two years later, I was delighted; we had pulled out completely. How wonderful to know that my little sons would not grow up and have to pick up a gun and go to war. I marched and protested against war, nuclear weapons, killing our planet and our environment, and for our civil and equal rights. In 1975, I thought that was it; no more war. Life was good and all would be fine.
A lot of my friends are upset with President Obama; they fear he will lead us into another Vietnam. Too late, I tell them. Bush beat him to that ownership; we’ve been there for eight years already. There is also chatter about what was promised and what was not promised. Short memories, I respond. President Obama always talked about pulling out of the dumb war in Iraq and instead drive out al-Qaeda from the hills and caves of Afghanistan.
And then there are those annoying rants and ravings from people who seemed to have lost all manner of humanity in their hearts and blindly follow those who use them and glut upon their deepest fears and hate. When Bush was spending money as if he were Amilda Marcos on a perpetual shoe shopping spree, not a word could be heard. President Obama pulls us back from the precipice of economic flat-lining and the party of no blurt out irrational statements as if they have contracted some mutated version of turrets.
President Bush turned the world against us with his axis of evil, cowboy tactics, and arrogance of acting alone instead of together with our allies. The party of no’s response was to say nothing. President Obama has brought this country’s ratings to a complete about face where we once again are respected and trusted on the world stage; and he hasn’t even been in office for an entire year. The party of no’s response, “NO. NO. NO.” And then there is Sara Palin and her book of lies. Here’s a little Palin and the party of no philosophy lesson.
The war in Afghanistan has no good solutions. It is a war and someone is going to kill and get killed. We should be grateful that our President is taking time to reassess and redefine our mission and ensuring that our troops have a viable exit strategy. I have personal stakes in his decision. Here’s my take in my response to a comment on my last post.
