A Senator Makes Me Sick and Other Assorted Items...

Several items of note today.

First, I must mention the passing of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. While his death has been unfortunate, I am not going to dwell on the subject simply because I know relatively little about the fellow. Of course, I understand his contribution to the Right, and especially in regards to the pushing for the election of President Reagan, and I commend him for that. However, I never really identified with the more severely evangelical set of those who have now been termed “neo-conservatives.” So, with all that having been said, I am sorry for his loss, greatly appreciate his life of contribution, but ultimately his death is not an event that really alters my political perspective- so to say.

However, what has been noteworthy to me is the following. I subscribe to both the Republican and Democrat Parties’ email listservs. Today, I received my typical Democratic propaganda from a gentleman apparently named Michael Lawley. Well, it seems Mr. Lawley would like me to join Senator John Edwards push to gather 100,000 names to sign a petition pushing for Congress to continue to hinge war-funding bills on the re-deployment (withdrawal) of troops from Iraq. I think I immediately felt nauseous upon recognizing this email’s agenda.

Allow me to quote from the email: “Congress took the right first step by passing their last funding bill setting a timetable for withdrawing our troops from Iraq. But following Bush's veto, the resolve in Washington has started to fade.”

This quote proves to me that I was unfortunately wrong. I was under the impression that those in Congress were coming to their senses following the President’s veto. Instead, apparently, it seems only that their resolve has dropped.

I say time and time again that it is terrible military strategy to forecast withdrawals based on certain time limits or benchmarks. What’s worse is to forecast these withdrawals and then attempt to make certain that they will become realized by holding the troops’ funds ransom. It truly boggles my mind that there are certain Congress members who genuinely feel that these sort of bully-like tactics are moral. To me, it’s an outrage. You know, the more I reflect on this email and Senator Edwards’ agenda, the more I feel that we should retaliate and partition to have him exiled or worse. The anger I have for the way the Democrats are handling this war-spending bill is raging and growing daily.

Wake up, people! There are soldiers out there that need this funding figured out. There’s a mission that needs to be completed. This is ridiculous…

Moving on…

Last night, I had a lively discussion with a friend of mine concerning the always budding situation with Iran. This friend of mine has political knowledge in abundance, attends school and is a member of the military. As one could assume, this friend and I agree on a lot.

However, I did not agree with his assessment that it is almost getting to be time for us (Americans) to be more militarily aggressive towards Iran. He suggested a couple of bombing sorties eliminating Iran’s nuclear sites. I think this is an awful idea because of the inevitable repercussions that it would invoke.

Here’s the dilemma. And, allow me to preface this by saying that Iran as a single element does not frighten me, however, it’s global tie (especially within the Middle East region) and outreaching arms do cause me plenty of concern. I foresee any American attack on Iran, no matter how targeted and small scale, to be destabilizing to the region in nearly World War 3-starting ways. Here’s what I see happening should we become aggressive in this sort of way towards Iran:

We attack. In retaliation, Hezbollah pushes from Lebanon and begins a battle with Israel that far exceeds what we saw last summer. This time, Hezbollah comes to the battle with a clear plan: eliminate Israel. The entire U.N. mandated force in the region is caught in the midst of the battle as they are, more or less, expected to be neutral. I can’t tell you what becomes of them or what would be the U.N. reaction, however I can foresee many Islamic countries supporting the Hezbollah fighters with insurgent-type tactics (to say these supporters would never publicly acknowledge their own effort in the cause). This Israel-Hezbollah war would be hot and heavy. America would be stuck having to make some contribution. Of course, any contribution on the side of Israel Meanwhile, Iraq and Iran, both figuratively and literally smolder… I think you can see where I am going with this; chaos ensues. immediately has us identified as supporters of the Jews in a war on all things Islam.

It would be interesting to hear others’ takes on the Iranian situation. Thanks. And that’s it for today.