This blog is in response to Seattle P-I Columnist Joel Connely, published in the March 2nd edition.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/305813_joel02.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To all those who support the War on Iraq, shame on you. I have held the belief from day one that attacking Iraq was a large mistake by the United States Government, and the 'progress' that has been made has done nothing to show otherwise. If the Iraqi people wanted to revolt, they would have done it. Revolutions have occured throughout history against oppressive rule, some sooner than later. In any case, in the spirit of democracy, the US should have had the backbone to stick up for its principles of freedom of choice. Just because a regime was oppressive doesn't mean the people governed didn't have a choice? Right, just like the American Colonies didn't have a choice against British rule, or the French didn't have a choice against their monarchy.
War in Iraq is an illegal occupation of a country, and should be seen for what it is. We went to war because there was an attack on American soil. Not because an oppressive dictator who our country helped empower during the 1980's was still in power in Iraq.
America needs to get out of their politically correct mindset, and focus on the job that needs to be done. We are too busy worrying about what race or what gender somebody is still that we can't work together to achieve our goal of defeating the enemy. Our enemy is our attackers, and as such we need to go after al Queda, and that's it.
Because of the different type of enemy we face in todays world, we need different tactics. We see the air strikes and ground assaults as the way to attack our enemy because that's what history has shown us what to do. Unfortunately, our enemy now does not have any borders, they are not governed by global regulations and they are not recognized on any maps. This is not a traditional war, and traditional tactics are not useful. In order to win this war, we need to increase intelligence by allowing the Patriot Act to stand. In order to win this war, we need to increase the budget of the CIA by training more people, getting them qualified, and going back to the Cold War type of CIA where spies were sent in and everything was a secret. No more press conferences about what our next moves are or what kind of intelligence we've found out, because as much as it may help the American people relax (incorrectly), it assists the enemy in knowing how best to attack us. Train more people, whether it be new recruits or by promoting our current infantry, in the ways of special forces. Use the knowledge that CIA informatives give us and go in to hand-to-hand combat to defeat the enemy from the top down.
Instead of holding all suspected terrorists indefinately, move them to trial so we can focus on the ones that actually know something. We must remain true to our principles and give these prisoners their rights. The right to a speedy trial and the right to counsel. Only by eliminating the innocent or harmless can we focus on the ones who pose a threat, get the information we need in order to make arrests and kill the people we need to kill. Only when this terrorist threat is eliminated can we live peacefully.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
