BARK's Yelps

Ok right and wrong doesn't matter right now. I am not supporting the war, and I am not opposing the war. I am not a liberal, I am not a Conservative. I am a republican, and I am a Democrat. I support gay rights cause gay people want them, and I support no gay right cause moral people don't want them. I am everything, I am nothing, I speak as an american first last and only.

Strictly from a cost benefit analysis I want to view this war.

The simple truth is that the weapons we found were not what we were asserting at all. As an analogy it would be like a police officer getting a warrant to search a house for a weapons stockpile and finding a single .22 revolver. al Qaeda never had bases until we created a situation in which they could thrive. As long as these gangs of thugs have shadows and instability they will be ok, but before life in Iraq wasn't this bad. What got you in trouble was talking bad about Saddam. And yes sometimes it would look like a scene from 1984, but it was not this bad.

Yes the Kurds were gettting shat on, but what about Darfur? What about China.

I think the taxpayers could have gotten more utility from their tax dollars by doing things here. The emotion we felt after the attacks was justified and worth responding to. But that fight is in Afghanistan. We got swept up in the moment and attacked a country that we have had issues with for a long time. I don't think it was the right time. Maybe we could have gotten Iraq in a few years, or maybe we should have gotten them before, but now those options are off the table.

Shock and awe disabled the electricity and water, which I believe we all can agree are very necessary for sanitation. We simply have not turned them back on. That is reprehensible for a civil nation to do. I feel shame that we asked them to believe in our mission, we asked them to rise and fight with us, we asked them to turn over terrorists, but we denied them an election when they asked for it (2003), and we deny them still basic neccessities. We could easily get them back on line. This is AMERICA! We can do at least that for them.

Now the people there suffer, and some fight. And it costs us alot. Personally I say FORGET IRAQ! Lets give some money to lenders to help their business out, lets try to help some homeowners get back home.

Lets work on cancer research and new technology. Lets solve issues about poverty by giving grants to universities to study the problem. Lets cut back unneccessary programs and use the money to help ourselves. We earned it. We paid taxes. Why are WE as taxpayers paying to destroy and rebuild a nation for people who do not want us there. If they did want us there they would not kill us. And if those in power wanted us there, they would not ignore our benchmarks and disrespect our requests.

This war will end up costing alot. The exact number I don't care about, I think the term ALOT, should suffice.

It cost us money.

It cost our morals.

Whatever you agree with, we made conventions saying when we fight wars we are good enough that we don't need to cheat. We signed that. And even that is not the issue. Take up all the legal arguments you want. But we agreed as a man would agree, not to do things like this (Geneva Conventions). If nothing else we broke our word. You should not lawyer the hell our of your word. A combatant is a combatant. POW thats what they are. We all know we are in a war. That is a duhh. We call it the Iraq war, not the Iraq situation or anything else. We backed down from our word.

It cost our constitution.

The expansion of executive power is the most unconservative thing I have heard in a long time. Putting more power into the office of ONE man, at the federal, not the state level is antithetic to the ideas. We have implied that war power are the executives when strictly speaking this is wrong. That power goes to congress. That is constitution 101. Unless you consider even the few thousand people here illegally an invasion, we have no right to suspend habeas corpus. Only in rebellion or invasion. I think the term is insurrection.

This is too much to bear. I am PROUD to be an American because we are BETTER than most of the rest. Our ideas of liberty are far superior to anyone's tyranny. Our belief that our systems are strong enough as are, to deal with some crazy whacked out Muslims should prevail. Unless we have no faith in our justice system we should let them speak. If they are a terrorist we should kill them. But they should have to stand before our courts and AMERICAN CITIZENS ie. a jury, and tell me why they want to destroy my country. That is a big part of the legal system. It is not just about the prosecutor and defendant. It is about open trials where people answer for the things they cause here. I want those in GITMO to answer to me. And as long as they keep them behind a curtain where I can't see them, they are denying my AMERICAN RIGHT to see justice being adminstered to those who need a little american law in their world.