Moment of Truth on Iraq

Signed! Thanks for speaking out. You did great on this in the debate last night.

I definitely will sign. I am so tired of a president who thumbs his nose at the American people and at the Constitution. This war is accomplishing absolutely nothing, except the loss of life and limb to young people too numerous to count.

(The links don't work. I'll go find the petition another way, but I thought you should know.)

For starters, we're not in a war in Iraq. We won the war when Saddam was deposed and the Iraqi army was disbanded. We're conducting an occupation. There's absolutely no way to 'win' an occupation! You just don't 'fight' an occupation the way you fight a war! What's needed now is diplomacy and political action by the Iraqi government, not us insisting we're going to continue fighting! Don't fall for Bush's rhetoric.

Actually, I'd already signed that petition, and I'm glad you posted this article on Gather!

GWB calls it a war. And a war it is. People are shooting each, people are dying. And the worst part is that there is no prize. We cannot win, because there is nothing to win.
We never should have gone in there in the first place. This whole war is a fraud perpetrated upon the American people by oil and money hungry polituicians. (How much money has Hallibuton made in this war? How much do they continue to make? Why has the entire public bidding process been circumnavigated?) Why do we keep losing rights so we can supposedly bring democracy to a country that doesn't want it?


Aaaccchhh! People who don't want to hear this will not hear it, but GWB is the worst, most non-democratic, most destructive president we have ever had. We have lost most than will be recovered in the next 20 years.

Well, Mr. Edwards, I must at least admit that you are quite clear on your position here. Those of Kathleen's viewpoint will clearly disagree with you. I find it rather hard to accept the viewpoint that we are accomplishing something with our presence at this point. Preventing slaughter? Well, not with much success. the slaughter is in fact happening.

Okay, sure, it is time to leave. We might as well admit it. Unfortunately we will be arguing about this for the next 20 years. Republicans will blame us for disloyalty, though in fact nobody stopped George from having his little invasion. We are only pointing out the obvious, that it has not gone well, and has no prospect of going any better in the future.

The links are broken Mr. Edwards.

Who cares what you call it? It's a war, for crying out loud.

No way will I sign that, Senator. You and your opponents know exactly what would happen if we bail out of Iraq, but you're all using it as leverage in your campaigns. Mitch & his fellow far-left Bush-haters love to opine to the Prez as stupid, clueless, etc. They haven't noticed that we haven't been attacked since 9/11/01, or that we have low unemployment, a skyrocketing market, and job growth in every sector.

If you hope to be Prez, you better get ready for this kind of mindless drivel. And you better be glad that Bush has already cleared the mine field for you.

Porter-
Saddam has been hung and buried, what more do you want? GWB has pumped the market with money borrowed from China and from our children's future. Far from clearing a mine field, he has led us into the middle of one, and is now ready to hop a helicopter to his golden years on the golf course without leaving us a map to get out.
And in case you have not noticed, those who disapprove of GWB now constitute 60% of the electorate. If that many Americans are "far left", then you are voicing a minority position yourself.

I don't care if I'm in the minority. Those polls are the result of the liberal media showing only the death count, not how much the tide is turning over there.

If you want a map, write all your southpaw politicians and ask them to stop screwing around with campaigning and start dealing with what's going on right now. Why won't they? Because they have no solution. That won't change if they get the White House.

Sorry, Mr, Edwards, I cannot sign the petition. The problem in the past administrations has been a lack of doing anything, concerning terrorists, If Bin Laden had been taken out , years ago, when the USA had the chance a 9/11 would not of happened. These terrorists were left go and unpunished far to many times. They have murdered innocent military in bombings and nothing has been done. Sure we havent caught Bin Laden as of yet, I never figured it would be any easy task and I cant give you an answer as to why, we didnt finish the job there, before we embarked in Iraq, I can agree about the soldiers who have lost their lives in this war. I pray for these soldiers, but it is a volunteer war, these soldiers must of felt a need or a compassion to help clear the way for the Iraqi people to enjoy freedoms such as we as citizens are lucky to have due to the military providing these benefits to us. I look at the good that has come out of this war, such as Saddam(the butcher) and his crazed sons are dead, the Oil for Food Scandal was found out about, the Iraqi people can vote(something that alot of us , take for granted) they are rebuilding hosp., schools, roads, etc. Several key terrorists have been killed or taken into custody. ANy time a dictator does the unspeakable to his own people, we need to step up to the plate and offer any assistance we can render. These people were not able to help themselves. I get so tired of hearing the Dems harp about Bush lying, when several of them voted for this same war. They heard and read the same inf. that Bush had. Then they try to disconnect from this war. I can see beyond the lies told about this war. The Dems harp about the money spent for this war but yet, they want to raise our taxes, the economy is good, unemployment is down, we havent been attacked since 9/11, over all I would say , once the taxes are raised, there goes the market, people wont be spending as much. In the past if the Dems had stepped up and took control of foreign policies, we would not be in the Middle East but instead , they want to talk and make promises , and try and buy our way out of involvement, it didnt work with Saddam, it hasnt worked with Korea, its not working with Iran. We have got to face the schoolyard bullies not run and hide as we have in the past. At one time my thinking was geared towards the Dems. but no more. I believe strongly in morals and values, freedom, religion, I believe in this country and our military, I support this war and I support our troops. Thanks, for this article and if I voted Dem, I probably would vote for you, you are the best choice the Dems have, as far as I am concerned for many reasons. I wish you and your wife the best and you both are in my prayers.

So Kathleen, by saying you support the veto I take it that you favor sacrificing still more American troops' lives in a losing cause? Glad we've got that straight. You'll no doubt be happy to know that 9 (NINE) more flag-draped coffins were filled between yesterday and today. The waste (yes, WASTE) of their lives by those who are resonsible for their welfare is a betrayal.

If this Democratic-controlled Congress knuckles under to Bush/Cheney/Rove on this they will make themselve complicit in squandering the lives of our best and bravest young Americans, the sacrifice of the physical and emotional integrity of thousands more, and the waste of enormous amounts of American treasure. "The opportunity cost" of this war (the waste of resources that could otherwise have been put to use addressing real problems in our society) is practically as appalling as its other costs.

John: What will happen if we "bail out" in Iraq, is exactly what will happen if we stay for another 5 years. It is going to go up in flames and there is absolutely nothing we are going to be able to do to prevent it. The only question is how long are we going to try to put off the inevitable, and at what cost in the lives of our troops?
And then you talk about "how much the tide is turning". The only way the tide is turning is in the direction of drowning both us and the innocent Iraqi population. (Tsunami, anyone?)

links are fixed!

Kathleen R - every moment you spend arguing about petty things like "John Edwards said WAR in his first sentance...." is a moment in which an American Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Airman or Guardsman dies. A moment in which several Iraqi children are murdered.

You heartless, self-righteous, little Bushbot - wake up and smell the blood on the hands of your Fuehrer Bush.

Congress should stand firm and pull the troops out now...nothing will be accomplished by next March that hasn't happened already. "Mission accomplished" four years ago, right?

John? What will happen if we leave Iraq and what will happen if we remain is very close to the same thing. Civil war and chaos. As for the silly slogan about 9/11 give it a rest. We never had an attack like that before 9/11 either, so the fact we didn't have one since pretty much says that the one we had then was pure unadulterated luck. It sure as heck wasn't because of anything Mr. Bush did.

People see Mr. Bush as clueless because they're being kind. There are some interesting articles about what will happen when we have to leave Iraq. And we will have to leave one way or another and sooner rather than later. Mr. Bush has successfully destabilized the entire region. The government in Iraq is paralyzed and incapable of doing anything even if they were willing to act, which is questionable at best.

Finally, attempting a "war on terror" without making any effort to address and cure the root cause of the problem is an exercise in futility. You cannot make war on an emotion to begin with. It's not possible. Any problems with Al-qaida is Iraq is entirely our doing. If we hadn't invaded with no intention of actually winning, or even a plan to do so, they would never have found a foothold there.

While I don't agree with a timetable for many reasons, I do think that the same basic bill, with milestones, goals, etc. should go back, sans all the pork of course. The Iraqi government needs to either act or risk the chaos that will follow a U.S. withdrawal there. Right now they are doing nothing because for them it's the safest thing to do.

I appreciate the efforts of the new democratic congress, not only in the area of Bush's disastrous and entirely unnecessary war in Iraq, but also in finally providing much needed oversight of this abusive, dishonest, and corrupt administration. Hopefully, investigations will lead to indictments, impeachments, removal from office, and a full accounting for all responsible for this national nightmare.

I for one will not rest until every single one of those responsible are locked away behind bars, for the rest of their lives. It's FAR past time to send a STRONG message to politicians in Washington, and particularly those that hold positions in the white house, that this is a nation of laws, and that they will be held accountable when they stray from those laws.

For anyone who still allows themselves to wallow in the sea of delusion that we are "fighting a war on terror," I'd like to remind you that there are currently 3,000 illegal aliens pouring through our southern border every single day, our nuclear and chemical plants are still unprotected, our major refineries are still unprotected, our rail lines and trucking lines (what if that truck that blew up in CA the other day was full of chlorine, and had driven into a shopping mall? What is keeping that from happening?) are still unwatched, the anthrax killer still roams freely, and oh, btw, we are beholden to China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia to the tune of nearly $10 trillion.

On top of that, Osama still roams freely, and there are STILL 500 unanswered questions with regard to 9/11, not the least of which is, who told SAC to stand down and not scramble fighter jets immediately?

We are NOT fighting a "war on terror," and even if we were, Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with it. We are in Iraq to secure the oil fields for American oil corporations, and to establish permanent military bases to use as launch pads to invade and occupy the other nations of the middle east, in order to control their oil as well.

This is no great secret. This was published by the PNAC long before 9/11. This is the first phase of Pax Americana, and I guarantee you that, had Iraq gone as swimmingly as the neocons had envisioned, we would've already invaded and occupied both Iran and Syria, and would probably be poising ourselves to take over Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The war in Iraq is immeasurably wrong, and we can only hope and pray that there is no such thing as a just God. 655,000 + dead innocent Iraqi's, including women and children. We firebombed Fallujah with white phosphorus and napalm, both weapons of mass destruction that are strictly banned for use against civilian populations. We've littered the entire country with hundreds of tons of radioactive depleted uranium, which has a half life of 4.5 billion years. We've cause so much human suffering in Iraq that it makes our genocide against the native Americans pale in comparison.

Worse than this is the fact that we've actually GROWN the threat of global terrorism in the process. If what we're doing in Iraq is part of the "war on terror," as the "right" would have us believe, we're losing terribly.

And, the fact that we haven't been attacked here since 9/11 has absolutely nothing to do with what we're doing in Iraq. By every intelligence claim that I've seen and heard over the past year, it's not a matter of "if," but rather "when," and there is virtually unanimous consensus that we are LESS safe because of Iraq. Globally, terror attacks are up exponentially since 9/11. Also, it's worth reminding some that we were not attacked on our soil for 8 years, between the first WTC attack and the next. As I recall, we weren't occupying Iraq during that period.

End this unholy disaster of a war, bring ALL of the troops home, expose the real agenda of the neocons who created this endless nightmare, and hold each and every one of them fully accountable in every possible way. Strip them and their families of all of their wealth, strip them of their freedoms, and shackle them forever with the label "traitor" that they so richly deserve. Do everything in your power, sir, to restore the moral authority of this great nation, by doing everything in your power to hold those responsible for this war accountable.

Bush had the chance to get Bin Forgotten at Tora Bora. His commanders wanted more troops to get him. Bush, Cheney, Rove and Rummy were more interested in Iraq.

This band of crooks has been after Iraq for well over a decade. They just needed some moron in the white house to fulfill their wet dream.

I signed the petition but it is going to be up to a competent president to get us out of there. Certainlhy won't be anyone from the far right.

i'm new to gather and am joining the conversation a bit late. i don't believe in war yet there are wars throughout history which i find were honorable and necessary. i didn't agree w/vietnam, turned out right about that one. i think iraq is a lose/lose. we can leave now or stay as long as we like and the outcome will be the same. there will be civil war. i was all for the invasion into iraq. i watched colin powell show all his photographs of evidence of mass destruction to the UN and i bought it hook, line and sinker. mostly because it came from him -- him i trust. if the little weasel in the white house had presented the same evidence, in exactly the same way, i might have weighed it differently. but it was colin powell who ultimately convinced me that we had to go into iraq. i am not sorry that we went in - i'm relieved that sadam and his compatriots are dead or imprisoned. but then we should've gotten out. there were no weapons of mass destruction, we got sadam, and we should have brought our brave men and women HOME! I