Why Do I Feel Sorry?

As I watched President Bush deliver his speech the other night whereby he told us that he wants to send an additional twenty thousand troops to Iraq, I started to feel sorry for him. He didn’t look like the man that addressed this country just six months ago. He has one of the worst approval ratings (30%) of any sitting president in history and yet he continues to forge ahead with the botched up war on terrorism. He looks troubled, not confident anymore, and seems to be on an island with just a few friends left. Even his PR Network FOX is having a hard time defending his actions and one Republican senator has even called his actions bordering on the criminal.

But then I catch myself and wonder why am I feeling sorry for a person that put not only himself but the entire nation and maybe the world in this terrible situation. Why should I feel sorry for a person that decided to go forward blindly without listening to the input of people who had a contrarian view such as Colin Powell? Why should I feel sorry for a person who has taken so long to admit that mistakes were made? Why should I feel sorry for a person who has put politics ahead of sparing the lives of our young men and women not to mention the innocent Iraqi’s who have been forced to bear the scourge of increasing terrorism in their country?
I’m angry at people like Don Cheney, Karl Rove, Don Rumsfeld et al for leading the President down the wrong path. We went out in search of Osama and we ended up catching and killing Saddam. We went out to catch the people that were responsible for 9/11 and we ended up trying to nation build. Our soldiers were never trained to nation build - they were trained to fight and kill. But as they try to nation build, over 3,000 have lost their lives. Now I can understand why that senator mentioned the word criminal. It is criminal to send young men and women to fight a poorly planned war and to put them in harm’s way.

I’m angry at all the Democrats who didn’t have the balls to speak out against the war from the outset for fear of losing their jobs (not getting elected). I’m angry at John Kerry for trying to walk a fine line always thinking not about our troops but about the votes. I’m angry at the Democrats for giving us such a weak candidate that couldn’t defeat a battered President. I’m angry at the Right Wing Religious that swallowed all the lies that were fed to them. I hope they have learned a lesson for the 2008 election.

I’m angry at hearing, “We support our troops,” by people who have sent them to fight with inferior protective equipment. You can throw that saying together with, “We’re doing it for the children,” and bury both of them. You don’t mean it. If you did, we wouldn’t be in the shape we’re in. Sometimes I think these words are uttered to mask some guilt that lies deep within the people saying them. It’s like the parent who let’s their teenager go out at 11PM in sleet and snow and saying, “Be careful,” instead of no, you’re not going out. They think that just by saying be careful, they have relieved themselves of any further responsibility. If something happens to them they can always say, “ I told him to be careful.” If you support your troops, well why don’t you go to a VA hospital and volunteer your services for a few hours a week? Why don’t you call on a wife of one of our soldiers and offer to help her for a few hours a week? Actions always speak louder than words.

We need to start making people accountable. We need a President who can first unify this country and then work on getting people to sit down and firmly and clearly get their message across in hopes of solving some of these problems. We need people who will not only act responsibly but also be willing to listen and learn from history and not make the same mistakes as before. Did we learn anything from Vietnam?

In reading the book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City Inside Iraq’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, I found the following quote from T. E. Lawrence;

Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not win it for them. Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is.

This quote dates back to 1917, ninety years ago, and it has much meaning today. In paraphrasing Colin Powell, he said, “If you break it, then you’re going to have to buy it.”

Did anyone listen?

I need to go and channel my anger into some form of productiveness.

God help our country.