Iraq and Afghanistan

Today President Bush recalled 8000 troops from Iraq, and sent some more to Afghanistan. Cynically, this is a move to take some of the wind out of the sails of the Democratic nominee, making this war less of a contention for debate.

I have yet to see a listing of the accomplishments we have achieved in these countries, the rebuilt infrastructure, schools and hospitals that we've promised to these people. The longer we are there, the more tired the population gets of our troops.

My analogy is what if there are Chinese troops and tanks taking over our country to free us from George Bush, and are marching along Academy Boulevard? Would we resent them? Co-operate with them? Form pockets of resistance, arming our friends and neighbors? Hide those resistors from the troops? A lot of what has happened in cities like Bagdad is a natural course of events when a country is occupied; it doesn't matter what the conflict has been.

The longer we are there, the more burnt out our troops become, having to be alert enough in life or death situations in 115 degree heat. The Army not letting you go home when your time is up, forcing you to enlist for another tour of duty or two or three until you lose the distinction between what is reality and what is the hell of this war. You have to deal with being poisoned by your own government, that uses depleted uranium in its bullets and bombs, and as reinforcement in the humvees you have to drive, leaving deformed children born in its wake. You never know if any man, woman, or child you see is carrying a bomb, or what you don't see buried alongside of every road.

And if you do come home, how do you deal with that pressure and the images of death and how do you end up channeling that energy? Unless you get therapy that is successful, you will direct it inwards and commit suicide, or direct it outwards and commit violence. These are statistics that are not added to the casualty lists and every politician and general should be held responsible.

There will never be a clear victory in these countries, nor probably in any other conflict that will be waged in the future. We haven't made any permanent friends in the region. I'd like to see Dick Cheney, George Bush, and that whole crowd tried for treason for the way they lied to the public to get us into Iraq in the first place, there are a whole bunch of books that make the case more eloquently than I can. But I will have to settle for however history ends up treating them...