Should America Leave Iraq?

Recently my liberal friends have been raising their voices about getting America out of Iraq. I myself was against the war in the first place or at least against rushing to war. However, pulling troops out of Iraq at this stage would be like pulling a first-string quarterback out of football game in the fourth quarter just because he is sweating. It’s just bad strategy.

The Iraq war was poorly planned and executed; most people would agree with that I think. Unfortunately we are in the war and we cannot change that. You cannot go into reverse when your car is already going 60mph in drive. You could put the brakes on and wait for the car to slow down before going into reverse but if you slam on the brakes too fast the car behind you might hit you. That is how the war in Iraq is. We need to put on our brakes and eventually go in reverse and allow Iraq to be a sovereign nation. Leaving too quickly could be a cure that is worse than the disease.

Becoming a sovereign nation that can run itself is not going to be an overnight job though. It will take time. No one is sure how long it will take and that is why setting up timetables for leaving is backwards thinking. But becoming a sovereign nation also requires the people to take part of the government and control of their own military. They have taken great strides in doing this but there is a lot of work ahead and progress has been impeded by continuing insurgency.

One of the main things that need to happen is to get the international community involved in Iraq. This is not a new concept, but nothing is being done to get the world involved. If we allow the entire world help in the rebuilding of Iraq it will be a strong push against insurgents showing them that it is not just the US and UK who is behind all of this; the whole world is.

Another concern of mine is the amount of money being put into Iraq. What happened to the idea that Iraqi oil would pay for all of our troubles? Somehow the government has to find a way to balance fighting a war and paying for war. The best way to do this would have been to get the international community involved in the first place to share some of the costs of rebuilding. Of course America has the money to do all of this, but is it really worth it to the American people? To continue our campaign in Iraq we need to find secondary sources of funding since the original ones are not working. The question is whether or not the current administration will be able to accomplish this task.

So the obvious fact is that there is no simple solution the Iraq problem. But I do find that it is obvious that we should not pull out of Iraq before they can run their own government. To do so would create more problems then solve. My only hope is that our current leaders can get this job done right and bring our troops home.

Letters to Political Parties

I have never been apart of any political party. Although most of my friends and family would call me a liberal, I have never joined a liberal political party. I have decided to go straight to the source of the political parties and ask them questions that might give me an answer to which political party I would want to affiliate myself with. I am starting with the chairmen/chairwomen (not sure if there are any chairwomen) of each political party I can find.

My first target is going to be Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee. Bellow I have included a letter that I am planning to send to him via snail mail (I feel actual mail to be much more effective when trying to get responses from politicians then E-mail or fax). Feel free to tell me what you think and if I should add and/or omit anything from it. Keep in mind though this is a first draft so there are probably some grammatical and spelling errors I have not caught yet.

ATTN: Ken Mehlman
Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

Dear Chairman Mhelman:

I am currently writing a nonpartisan piece on varying political parties in the United States and their goals and views presently, and for the future. My goal is to hear from each chairman of these political parties and their personal views on certain matters at hand.

As you are probably well aware of, the American budget deficit and debt has grown quite large in the past several years. There are understandable reasons for some of these deficits, but how does the Republican Party plan to pay off these debts? If Republicans stay in control of the House what plans will be put into place to compensate for increased spending of the federal government?

In America there is currently a debate on Intelligent Design and its place within our public schools. What is the RNC’s stance on this issue? Should the federal government become more involved in the issue?

Abortion is a hot topic at the moment especially with President Bush’s current Supreme Court nominations. What is the RNC’s official position on this matter? Should the federal government limit abortion further or should it leave it be and let the courts handle it?

According to the polls President Bush’s approval rating has hit record lows as of late. Why do you think this is, and how should President Bush increase his standing with the public?

What is your prediction on the outcome of the 2006 midterm elections? Will Republicans keep their lead over Democrats in the House and by how much?

As an independent I would like your best reason why I should join the Republican Party.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Jon Fowler

My next letter will be to the Democratic Party. I do not plan to stop there though. So far I have contact information of the Green Party, Libertarian, and Socialist Labor Party. If there are any other parties that you would like me to write to please tell me and give any contact information you have on them.

To keep up-to-date on this letter writing campaign you can visit my blog.

Bush’s Humor Becomes Tiresome

There was a time in which I thought having George W. Bush as president wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Well, not such a bad thing for comedy that is. In truth Bush’s humor ran out four or five years ago. Every time this man speaks he says something funny, but it’s becoming predictable and bland. Please Mr. Bush, get some new material. I mean you do have some of the best writers working for you.

It became more apparent this Veterans Day during Bush’s speech that he needs a new comedy writer. You know when you hear a joke and you know it’s funny, but you’ve heard it so many times you can’t laugh at it anymore, that’s what his material has become.

My favorite joke from Friday’s speech was the one about baseless facts. You all know how that one goes. "These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will." I know I should be laughing at this, but I just can’t bring myself around to doing it anymore. It’s just not funny anymore.

Take another example, "It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began." Now this one did make me smirk a bit, but I should be laughing my ass off.

Maybe I’m just becoming too depressed of the fact that none of this is actually a joke. This man is serious. The fact that he is serious about what he says used to add to the comedic factor, but nowadays I find myself barely acknowledging the humor behind what Mr. Bush says.

I used to also think that this whole war thing that he’s been building on was just part of an elaborate act, but I haven’t seen the joke behind it yet. Maybe it’s one of those Andy Kaufman types of jokes where you don’t realize it’s funny until later. I sure do hope that punch line is coming up soon.

Perhaps twenty or thirty years from now we’ll get the joke. I mean we’re still waiting for the punch line form the Vietnam War and that thing ended a while ago.

Washington I-901 Passes With Flying Colors

In the local Washington State election voters passed I-901 which makes illegal to smoke within “public” places. This includes privately owned establishments. I’m not a smoker myself, but I believe in a free market. I voted I-901 down and I implored other to do the same. It is one thing to limit where people can smoke but to completely illegalize it in places that are not truly public is going too far. I think DJ No Name on local radio station 107.7 The End put it best. He pointed out that everything in Seattle is so close together that this law would make it very difficult to smoke even outside. Another point is that businesses that want to make non-smoking sections, but don’t have much room to do so under the 25 foot rule have to completely ban smoking in their establishment. The fact is that a free market will take care of this problem of indoor smoking. If there is market for having smoking free establishments, then the business will take care of it. Something like 75% of restaurants and bars in the state of Washington already have banned smoking and most that still have smoking have non-smoking sections. I think this initiative went too far and I’m sad to see my fellow voters decided to pass it.

On a positive note I-912, I-330, and I-336 all were voted down. At least Washington voters decided rationally on most of the issues.

Poor Saddam

With the murder of another defense lawyer for Saddam Hussein the question arises whether or not Saddam can even have a fair trial while he is still in Iraq. If America wasn't behind the trial they might have been able to get it to go to the International Criminal Court. But we all know the American government hates justice on an international scale. So maybe if we can't get a just trial for Saddam we can just throw him intro the street and allow there to be mob justice. We could get Fox to tape it and then everyone in America can watch this awesome new reality show. Now there's some good TV.