The War in Iraq - Ridiculous!

Let me first start by admitting that I am not a war junkie. I don't spend a whole lot of time keeping up with the latest death tolls in Iraq this week, which car was bombed, which politician made which excuses. But every so often, I can be found reading about the drama on one of the major news websites or watching NBC Nightly News, where of course they always make a point of mentioning happenings in the Middle East.

Now that I got that out of the way, I'd like to state for the record that there are some things about this war that I don't understand.

For example, being that today is the anniversary of the start of the war, there are protests taking place in cities all over the United States (and have been all weekend). These are supposed to be peaceful demonstrations against the war, wherein people yell about how they want to war to end. Great. No problem there. Gotta love freedom of speech.

My issue with this type of demonstration is that I can't figure out who these people are demonstrating to, exactly, and other than getting their feelings about the war off of their chests, what do they expect to happen? Do they honestly think that Bush is going to call it off just because people got out in the street and said so? It seems painfully obvious to me that Bush is quite content with the situation as it stands, regardless of any sane arguments against it. No amount of demonstration is going to change that.

To be honest with you, I'm also getting quite tired of hearing the families of U.S. soldiers whining about letting the troops come home so they don't get harmed. Like I said earlier, I'm not well-versed in all things Iraq war, but as far as I know, there was no draft. Men and women from all over the place volunteered for military service, of their own volition and under no duress, knowing full well that they would be expected to die for their country if necessary. I think that the friends and families of military participants need to spend more time being proud of the fact that their loved one was willing to put their life on the line to protect this country. Why make someone feel guilty about such a selfless choice?

On tonight's news, they conducted an interview with a soldier who had recently returned from Iraq. Amongst other things, he expressed that those who have spent the weekend demonstrating against the war have forgotten 9/11. He said that these people are not thinking about the reason that we're over there to begin with - to curb terrorism. According to this guy, it would be a terrible mistake to withdraw because the U.S. would get attacked again.

I guess what he doesn't understand is that if we are to stay in Iraq until the threat of terrorism is gone, we'll be there forever. From what I've heard and read, nothing much has changed over there. So where do we draw the line? At what point do we finally say, "enough is enough", and either leave Iraq to its own devices or blow them up once and for all?

I can't help but think that there are so many better things to worry about. Just imagine what could be accomplished right here at home with even a fraction of the funds that are devoted to our military. We can't even help ourselves, but the minute we see an opportunity to get involved in someone else's business, we're there. Is there some question as to why other countries even cooperate with us at all? They don't respect us and our way of life, they fear us. They know if they don't conduct business the way we want them to - good old democracy - we'll run in and take over. How very democratic of us to run into someone else's house and change their entire way of life, and all because of a relative few who spoiled the bunch.