No matter who was or was not for the war in Iraq… Democrat or Republican… I never was. I remember the correlations drawn between Iraq and 9/11 in the months leading up to the war. I didn’t buy into them. I didn’t believe that Iraq was a real and imminent threat. I thought that going to war with Iraq was a mistake. I felt that we should finish the war in Afghanistan and then help to rebuild that country with the Christian generosity our leader would seemingly embrace.
And I was not alone. There were others who felt as I did and as I do now. There were others who protested and cried out against the prospect. I remember in the early weeks of March 2003 hoping that something would stop what then seemed inevitable.
I do not support the war. I support the people, soldiers and civilians who are caught up in it. It was a grave error that has wasted lives. Lives American and Iraqi – not numbers, every number is just a place holder for a life, for a person – with family and friends and a future. “I’m sorry for your loss.” Like it’s a car accident rather than ritualized fratricide. It is absolutely an abomination that we participate in killing while we play games of religious rhetoric.
The long and the short of it – I don’t care what Kerry (or anyone else) says unless he moves to LEAD us in some reasonable way out of this morass.
It is not for me a subject of light or academic debate (and there are many other such subjects I feel likewise about.) I do not wish to engage in tit for tat debate. I write to express in the clearest fashion I can manage those matters that concern me most. I undertake this to preserve my friends and vent my frustrations with our failed leadership. I am not interested in defending the comments or actions of others unless I take them on as mine to defend.
I am a liberal – a raging, radical liberal – and it is not an epithet that I am ashamed of…
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