Foreign Policy

Has Cheney, Mohammad Cartoon, Islam, Made Us Lose Sight Of War?

February 21, 2006 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅ ⋅ Post a comment

With all of the talk about the Mohammad cartoon, and the Dick Cheney shooting, we have been forgetting that there is a war going on in Iraq, and many are wondering again, “How much longer will we have to be there, and what difference are we actually making?” We still have no direction, or timetable, or plan, being offered.

Reportedly the Iraqi political situation is deteriorating so badly that we have gone so far as to have to tell the Iraqi government that if they do not conform to free politics we will have to pull out our American aid. Has it really gotten this bad in Iraq? Did we replace one dictator with a whole parliament of sectarian racist politicians? Where was the planning, the foresight? Didn’t we have anyone in power ask the question, “What will come next?” Can all the Democratic rhetoric really be correct? Was there really no plan in place? Are they really just wining this whole thing? I would like to think not but it is starting to look that way.

Many see the violence in the Middle East in response to the Mohammad cartoon and they ask themselves, “Is this what my hard earned tax dollars are paying to support?” Then there are the outsourcings companies who now fear their businesses may be compromised in the Middle East by radical Muslims retaliating for what they perceive as attacks against Islam. Now throw in the Iranian President who is spouting off about a holocaust cartoon contest for Arabs in the Middle East. Add all these flash topics to an already ignitable tinder called the Iraq War and you have instant fire on both sides of the Iraq War debate. Many Americans are fed up and they only see the Iraqi situation worsening.

Bombings have become an everyday occurrence in Iraq and there appears to be no let up in sight. Monday for instance saw at least 24 people killed by bombings that occurred throughout Iraq. These bombings are getting larger in scale, and more complex in nature, what policy do we have in place to curb these atrocious acts? What is the game plan for this?

In Baghdad Monday, a homicide bomber detonated an explosives belt on a bus in the Shiite district of Kazamiyah. Earlier in the day a bomb was also detonated near Liberation Square. Elsewhere Monday, in Mosul, a homicide attacker blew himself up in a restaurant packed with policemen. And lastly, in Madain, a car bomb exploded causing a large amount of civilian damage. It appears to many that the violence is actually ramping up while the curbing of violence is going back down. Again it must be asked, “What is the game plan here?”

Furthermore, as the violence rages, the Iraqi country is mired in a political stalemate; it has gotten so bad in recent weeks that the U.S. ambassador to Iraq had to warn Iraqi politicians that they are running the risk of losing American support if they do not unite in order to establish a legitimate national government.

The political situation is deteriorating, the violence is ramping up, American soldiers are still being injured at an alarming rate, and the American economy is being drained? I think its time the President tell us what is going on, we deserve to know. We also deserve a timetable and an exit strategy, we will not accept the rhetoric about enabling the resistance, and they have not apparently weakened so I don’t see how we can enable them any further. Give us the answers we deserve President Bush.

War In Iraq

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