NAILING ME DOWN FOR MY VIEWPOINTS ON THE WAR

I have been asked over and over about my feelings, my solutions for ending the war, the conflict, the illegal occupation, the travesty that is the Bush legacy. I am frequently asked this because, as a devout liberal, I am assumed to want the troops out immediately, like most others to the left. Especially so since I am leaning to eight more wonderful Clinton years to follow. So, here goes....

I hate the war. I hate the chaos here, and over there. I hate the deaths, both ours, and the Iraqi's (I am a liberal, you know, I do think of more things / losses than our own). I hated the bombings early on (the so called "softening up" of Iraq), which left many defenseless Iraqi's, and their children unable to sleep in fear of what might blow up next, including their own bedrooms. I hate the way we were lied to in order to get into the war. I hate the way we are hated worldwide because of it. I hate the way we went against our friends, and did the wrong thing by invading. I hate the terrorists we created by doing so. I hate the way we failed to let the UN inspectors do their jobs. I hate the $ we are absolutely wasting over there which could go to health care, education, rebuilding of the infrastructure, or paying down of the deficit (not that we would have needed much without the war). But having said all of that, here is my viewpoint from this day forward (because we cannot go back, after all).

There is a great moral conundrum in the Iraq situation. The pro-war position that we cannot abandon the mess we've made does have great certain moral authority. There are now millions upon millions of Iraqis whose lives have been ruined in this war and millions upon millions more whose lives continue to be at risk due to the chaos unleashed by the war and during the time America has been in charge of the country. To abandon them and fail to establish a secure and decent level of civilization is reprehensible. Not to mention pulling out short of accomplishing anything, would be a tragic waste of all those brave men and women who have fallen in our resolve.

So what do we do from here, you ask....change the leadership of this country, for one. No, we need to GET some leadership in the White House. Then we sit down at the first of many Camp David summits with our allies, current, and previously friendly nations, and humbly admit that this country was wrong for the war. We were wrong, we regret the damage we have inflicted, we are now a new nation with a new administration, and we need your ideas, your help and your resources to make things right for Iraq.

And you go from there. And you listen. And you grieve. And you look your member nations in the eyes, and be honest. And you do all you feasibly can to gain the respect and confidence in the other nations who have lost all feelings for us. Their respect, their admiration, their friendship, their vow to help us when needed, like we have done for them in the past. And then you say thanks. Thanks for not turning your backs on us now, like we dumped all over you before going into Iraq.

And that is the "World According to Kimba."

Thanks for reading.