The Thirst for Freedom

From CNN.com:

If Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton get elected, I don’t believe that they will quickly pull American Troops out of Iraq. Either they already know better, or they very quickly will know better. They may oversee a gradual reduction, and falsely claim credit for something that would have happened anyway.

Thought: Did you know that John McCain’s son is in Iraq?

I watched a couple hours of discussion on CSPAN yesterday including much analysis on why Our Nation must remain in Iraq. The discussion also included extensive thoughts on how much faster Iraq is reconciling politically then other nations in history. Northern Ireland was mentioned as an example. When I read my history book it seems that wars are always long and painful. Listening to people talk one would almost think that wars always went smoothly without any bumps in the road.

Honestly, I cringe at the thought of analyzing America’s losses in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have not lost a loved one in the conflict. I cannot imagine what that would be like. Every single soldier lost is a tragedy. All who will suffer with their wounds need to be remembered.

I feel the same way whenever I hear talk about “acceptable collateral damage.” There is no acceptable number of civilian deaths to me. Having said that, I understand why in a war there needs to be practical discussion of such things but I always try and remember the human tragedies involved.

One blogger has pointed out that relatively speaking it hasn’t been as bad in terms of casualties as the media paints it out to be. It is an interesting perspective. If you have lost a loved one I don’t think it will be much comfort to you. I only consider these things as I evaluate the accuracy of what I hear.

I have fallen asleep with tears more than once over the tragedy of young men dying in Iraq. My prayer is that the soldiers can come home soon. My fear is that they may be there for a while yet out of a true necessity.

Here is a quote from The American Scratchpad:

The point here is that our mainstream media continues to spin these figures (for liberal political gain). Nothing more…its all about politics and the libs are famous for turning American against American for a vote. (These statistics are published by Congressional Research Service, and they may be confirmed by anyone at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf) Now ask yourself two questions:

“Why does the mainstream Print and TV Media never print statistics like these?”
and
“Why do the mainstream media hate the (world wide) web as much as they do?”

Ensure you do your homework before you place your vote. Because the media does their own, and they know how to manipulate those who don’t. [Read More]