Mild Iraq Rant

Okay, the crazy Costa Ricans who used to host my site gratis (who are really nice people, by the way, because I’m about to insult them) are no longer hosting it — rather, it’s being hosted by a good, sound, thoroughly capitalist young man, so I’m allowed to rant a little. Requirements for being hosted by the Costa Rican liberals was “none of that Nazi shit”, i.e., I was not allowed to say that I am a Republican, express support for Republicans, or espouse any of my political views. By the way, the way people keep calling other people “Nazis” when they disagree with them — from both sides of the aisle — is a rant unto itself.

Right. So what the hell was my point? Iraq. Right. And troop withdrawal. Here’s the first point — most reports from the front, and you can check me on this one, report that the troops really feel they’re making progress towards stability and want to stay there. I personally know a young man who’s re-enlisted twice (head of a sniper squad that was around Basrah during the war). In addition, here’s what really gets me — the detractors of Iraq-rebuilding, those who want to jerk the troops home because we’re “failing”, never bother to look at history. Japan? We spent DECADES rebuilding Japan, and I think we did a rather nice job. Germany? Christ, we STILL have troops in Germany! The German liberals hate it, but we still have them there.

The point is — now, I made this point in an article published right after 9/11 in which I asked “how many of you will be with us when we’re mired down in Iraq?”, which is on another computer, and I believe mirror-cached somewhere in the Internet (it was one of my old Feral Cortexes — man, I KNEW we were going into Iraq when I voted for Bush, for the love of God, way before 9/11). Okay, too many dashes, I’ve confused myself. The point is that the American public has the attention span of a gnat these days. We just can’t commit for the long haul. If we truly committed for the long haul in Iraq, we could have a bastion of stable Democracy and free trade in the Middle East. Yes, yes, call me a raving neo-con, call me wrong, but that’s the Big Vision, and it could happen if we’d only shut up and pitch in together on the whole thing, support the troops, support the Big Vision, and just let it happen. It’s already going very well — as a lot of you know, there are a lot of blogs out there that actually report the good news from Iraq. One that is now defunct because of a career change I believe was called exactly that, “The Good News From Iraq”. There is a LOT of progress and good news, but you don’t read about it in the newspapers, because, with their selective publishing, they want you to focus on the damn car-bombs. Especially liberal rags like the NYT and such.

Okay, I’ll shut up. But consider this an open plea for patience. Americans are good at rebuilding national infrastructure. Japan is the big example. For God’s sake, give it a shot. If Martin Luther King had insisted on racial integration the day after tomorrow, it would have been absurd, would it not? But no, he took a long view of things. I’m saying just that. I might not even live to see a truly thriving and free Iraq, but I think it’s something that’s worth working towards.

Ah. It feels good to be political again. Those of you who wish to call me a Nazi or a rabid neo-con or whatever the hell epithet is the phrase of the day, go right ahead. I don’t mind. 🙂

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