President Bush finally admitted to the nation today that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq. It only took him 3 1/2 years to realize the obvious, while the rest of us have been yelling this at him for quite some time. I guess when 70% of the American public disapprove of your handling of the war it becomes harder and harder to be oblivious to reality.
Mr. Bush, you say that the insurgents are the ones hurting US efforts in Iraq, but they wouldn't even be there if you would have followed the first basic rule of occupation, secure the entire country. There were so many things that went wrong that I'm not going to even begin listing them here. My point is, we need to admit to ourselves that this war is not worth it any more.
I don't like drawing too many similarities to Iraq and Vietnam, but some are unavoidable. During the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon ran on the platform of getting us out of Vietnam. In the four years of Nixon's first term, he tried just about anything to "win" the Vietnam War without a full military withdrawal (read: defeat). Nixon even contemplated using nuclear weapons on North Vietnam. Even with the best efforts of the White House, America was unable to solve the debacle that was Vietnam. Hence, in 1972, Nixon ran on the same platform as '68, ending the Vietnam War.
So what was accomplished during those four years? The war was still raging in '72 and American society was at an interesting point in our cultural history. Oh yeah, also an approximation of 32,000 US military personnel were killed during that four year period. And what happened in the end? We pulled out because the war was not worth it. From a military standpoint America was "winning" the war in Vietnam, but from a realistic standpoint there was nothing to win, nothing to gain, no real accomplishment. So, here we are, more than three decades later in the same sort of situation.
Mr. Bush, you failed your country by not learning the lessons of history. You failed your country by not planning a realistic occupation. You failed your country by ignoring reality for more than three years. If we are to fight a war against terror we must first look within ourselves before trying to quell the external forces. You cannot fight an enemy abroad if you cannot even fight your own incompetence within.
I hope for the sake of our brave soldiers and their families that you realize what you've done. Realize that there is no victory in occupation. There is no victory in sending soldiers off to die for nothing. The only victory that we can hope for, is that America will finally learn its lesson after history repeats itself for a second time.
December 20, 2006
May 2, 2006
Yes, Your Daddy is a Criminal, but so is Everyone Else
The debate about immigration seems to be flaming even greater recently than usual, which was made even more obvious by the marches that were just held. In case you’ve been oblivious to the recent discussions around the nation regarding immigration, Republicans don’t know what to do, the American people are divided on the matter, and Democrats are pissed because nobody cares what they are saying.
So as I was watching the news about these wonderfully productive marches I noticed one of the most amusing signs. It stated, “My Daddy is Not a Criminal”. Let’s think about that for a second. Is he an illegal immigrant? Hmm, well it has the adjective illegal attached onto it, so I would be inclined to say yes, he is a criminal. I’m also sorry to say that every illegal immigrant in the United States is a criminal. When they wake up they are criminals, when they go to work they are criminals, and when they go to bed they are criminals. That father may be a perfectly law-biding citizen in every other way, but his mere presence in this country is illegal, and therefore he IS a criminal.
Now, what I just said might sound a little bit harsh, but it is the truth. There’s also another truth, everyone is a criminal in America. I’m sorry I had to break the news, but yes folks, you’re all criminals. You’re probably thinking to yourself right now, ‘this guy is nuts, I’m not a criminal!’ Guess what, I bet most of you break the law everyday, whether it be speeding in your car, jaywalking, spitting on the sidewalk (this actually illegal in a number of cities), or maybe even loitering (you damn whippersnappers always loitering around). So aren’t we all criminals at least to some degree? Is being an illegal immigrant more criminal than some of the criminal things we do every day?
Illegal immigration is going to happen, that’s a fact, and we Americans have been able to deal with it for quite some time now. The question is should we accommodate illegal immigrants? It seems that many Americans are empathetic towards immigrants whether illegal or not, but also understand that we can’t just allow everyone who wants in to actually come here. To me it seems that the majority of illegal immigrants come here so that they can work, and companies are willing to hire them because they don’t have to pay those minimum wages. The simplest solution to this is to crack down on all the companies that hire immigrants illegally. If there are fewer jobs available for them, they may not be willing to come over quite as quickly. My only concern with this solution is that companies may be fearful of hiring legitimate Mexican workers just because they will not want to take a chance of being investigated at all for hiring anyone who is illegal, thus making life worse for those who are already American citizens or have visas or green cards.
The people I feel who are getting the shortest end of the stick are the legal immigrants. These people have to work so very hard just to get into our country and then they have to know more than almost any state-born American knows about this country to actually become a citizen. Here they spent a lot of money in many cases and worked very hard to get into this country legally, and these illegal immigrants are undermining all of that by just waltzing their way into this country.
So here’s my final solution (I know that sounds bad) to the immigration problem. We give illegal immigrants an ultimatum. We know that we cannot deport every single illegal immigrant in America, and it would be a waste of time to do so. Also many of them obviously love this country and would love to become legal citizens. They get 90 days to take a naturalization test, just the standard one that is used for the citizenship process of green card and visa holders. They may only take the test once and after they have passed it they must take a basic English test to see whether or not they have decided to at least pick up some English and naturalize themselves with our culture. They may only take the test twice. If they fail both times then they are immediately deported back to their country of origin. This of course only work for people who do not have children. If you have children who were born in the United States or are citizens of this country then their parents are automatically given citizenship as well, of course stepchildren do not count. I know this might not be a perfect solution, but I think it’s at least a starting block towards an actual solution towards fixing the immigration problem.
Your daddy may be a criminal, but if he truly loves America and wants to become a citizen he should be given a chance, as should everyone else already living the US.
So as I was watching the news about these wonderfully productive marches I noticed one of the most amusing signs. It stated, “My Daddy is Not a Criminal”. Let’s think about that for a second. Is he an illegal immigrant? Hmm, well it has the adjective illegal attached onto it, so I would be inclined to say yes, he is a criminal. I’m also sorry to say that every illegal immigrant in the United States is a criminal. When they wake up they are criminals, when they go to work they are criminals, and when they go to bed they are criminals. That father may be a perfectly law-biding citizen in every other way, but his mere presence in this country is illegal, and therefore he IS a criminal.
Now, what I just said might sound a little bit harsh, but it is the truth. There’s also another truth, everyone is a criminal in America. I’m sorry I had to break the news, but yes folks, you’re all criminals. You’re probably thinking to yourself right now, ‘this guy is nuts, I’m not a criminal!’ Guess what, I bet most of you break the law everyday, whether it be speeding in your car, jaywalking, spitting on the sidewalk (this actually illegal in a number of cities), or maybe even loitering (you damn whippersnappers always loitering around). So aren’t we all criminals at least to some degree? Is being an illegal immigrant more criminal than some of the criminal things we do every day?
Illegal immigration is going to happen, that’s a fact, and we Americans have been able to deal with it for quite some time now. The question is should we accommodate illegal immigrants? It seems that many Americans are empathetic towards immigrants whether illegal or not, but also understand that we can’t just allow everyone who wants in to actually come here. To me it seems that the majority of illegal immigrants come here so that they can work, and companies are willing to hire them because they don’t have to pay those minimum wages. The simplest solution to this is to crack down on all the companies that hire immigrants illegally. If there are fewer jobs available for them, they may not be willing to come over quite as quickly. My only concern with this solution is that companies may be fearful of hiring legitimate Mexican workers just because they will not want to take a chance of being investigated at all for hiring anyone who is illegal, thus making life worse for those who are already American citizens or have visas or green cards.
The people I feel who are getting the shortest end of the stick are the legal immigrants. These people have to work so very hard just to get into our country and then they have to know more than almost any state-born American knows about this country to actually become a citizen. Here they spent a lot of money in many cases and worked very hard to get into this country legally, and these illegal immigrants are undermining all of that by just waltzing their way into this country.
So here’s my final solution (I know that sounds bad) to the immigration problem. We give illegal immigrants an ultimatum. We know that we cannot deport every single illegal immigrant in America, and it would be a waste of time to do so. Also many of them obviously love this country and would love to become legal citizens. They get 90 days to take a naturalization test, just the standard one that is used for the citizenship process of green card and visa holders. They may only take the test once and after they have passed it they must take a basic English test to see whether or not they have decided to at least pick up some English and naturalize themselves with our culture. They may only take the test twice. If they fail both times then they are immediately deported back to their country of origin. This of course only work for people who do not have children. If you have children who were born in the United States or are citizens of this country then their parents are automatically given citizenship as well, of course stepchildren do not count. I know this might not be a perfect solution, but I think it’s at least a starting block towards an actual solution towards fixing the immigration problem.
Your daddy may be a criminal, but if he truly loves America and wants to become a citizen he should be given a chance, as should everyone else already living the US.
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