Iraq

I can't believe we still have soldiers in Iraq. Even more, I can't believe that the war has become a background to other things going on. More coverage is devoted to American Idol, Michael Jackson, and Tom Delay. It's as if the American people have resigned themselves to the occupation with no exit plan and no change in the foreseeable future.

I'm against the war in Iraq, as you can probably tell. I have been since before it started. I didn't think we should invade the country back when WMDs and al Qaeda links were still accepted as probabilities and I sure don't think we should have gone to war now that we know the reasons were flat out lies. No, I was never going to be in favor of war ... any war, especially one built on deception. I'm for peace and tolerance -- two ideas in short supply here in Houston, deep in the heart of hatred.

So I understand why I was in the minority (although not as much of a minority as the conservative pundits would have you believe) and why a number of people were so bloodthirsty for some sort of revenge after the 9/11 tragedy. But what I don't understand is why we are still there and why a majority of the people don't see the problem.

I recently wrote a paper aiming to convince people to support getting out of Iraq, and most of the research pointed to people feeling like even though it may have been a mistake, we are already in there, it's too late now, so let's make the most of a bad situation. What a load of shit.

Certainly invading Iraq was a mistake. We invaded a sovereign nation and committed unspeakable acts of violence on normal, every day, wake-up-in-the-morning-go-to-work-care-for-your-kids people when diplomacy would have been a much better option. The claim was that Hussein was a bad man and the world would be better and Iraq safer with him gone. Now we see that even if he was a bad man, the world and Iraq is no safer. We replaced a bad man with a number of bad men and a horrible spiral of violence and lawlessness. Our mission, which was misguided, a lie, and morally bankrupt, was a total failure.

What made people think that we had the right to force our idea of what is right on a totally different culture in the first place? What arrogance. What greed. With practically no global support and a rush to arms we effectively destroyed a nation and alienated ourselves from friends and allies. What shame we should feel.

Yet surprisingly we don't. We continue along hearing the latest attack and the most up to date body count in the background on TV and read it on page six of the paper. In writing my paper I doubt I convinced anyone. I don't think many people are listening, and the few who listen are like me, growing more frustrated and numb at the same time.

We should get out of this tragedy now. Perhaps then the other problems like the economy, the chaos in Iraq, and the growing divide between the right and the left of the country could be dealt with. Because as long as soldiers and citizens are dying in Iraq America will continue to suffer at home.