iraqi citizens

First the blame for all the problems in Iraq went to al Qaeda. Once that theory was debunked, the administration aimed the blame to Iran. Now look at what is happening:

There is no evidence the Iranian government is stirring trouble in Iraq, a U.S. general said on Monday, playing down suggestions that Tehran will retaliate for U.S. backing of Israel's war on Hizbollah.

"There is nothing that we definitively have found to say that there are any Iranians operating within the country of Iraq," Major General William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, told a news conference.

U.S. officials have previously said the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hizbollah might encourage Tehran to make mischief in Iraq to pressure the United States, which has some 130,000 troops in the country.

So why does our government keep looking for scapegoats to lay all the blame on when it comes to Iraq? Simple - they don't want to tell you where the real problem is. That problem is coming from within. It involves people, who are Iraqis, who do not accept democracy or our presence. They will fight not only us, but also the Iraqi citizens who support us.

Basically it comes down to all the ingredients being thrown in for a civil war. Perhaps this is why the administration used these scapegoats. Look at some simple facts.

1. The last thing Bush wants is a civil war. This would mean a reauthorization for the war, that is sure to fail. It would then most likely lead to us having to withdrawal from the region and let them fight it out within.
2. Al Qaeda was the first good stooge. Blaming al Qaeda for the problems kept building that 9/11 and Saddam link that the administration so badly wanted and lied about. While many of us know the truth, there are still many in the country who believe Saddam was involved in 9/11. In other words, using al Qaeda for the blame of what is happening in Iraq served a political purpose more than anything.
3. We want a reason to attack Iran. Saying Iran is causing the problems in Iraq could provide the administration with a reason to do some attacks within Iran without extra authorization from Congress. Simply declaring Iran as an enemy of our cause in Iraq would be authorization enough. The problem lies in people in our Congress (namely Democrats) and citizens here asking the tough questions and would want to see evidence of such involvement by Iran should Bush take action against them.

This is how incompetent the Republicans in Senate are:

When angry Democrats briefly shut down the Senate last year to protest the slow pace of a congressional investigation into prewar intelligence on Iraq, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) claimed a rare victory.

Republicans called it a stunt but promised to quickly wrap up the inquiry. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which is overseeing the investigation, said his report was near completion and there was no need for the fuss.

That was nine months ago.

The Republican-led committee, which agreed in February 2004 to write the report, has yet to complete its work. Just two of five planned sections of the committee's findings are fully drafted and ready to be voted on by members, according to Democratic and Republican staffers. Committee sources involved with the report, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they are working hard to complete it. But disputing Roberts, they said they had started almost from scratch in November after Democrats staged their protest.

This is playing politics with the war that has cost us the lives of over 2500 U.S. soldiers, tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens and cost us hundreds of billions of dollars. With all the dangers facing the world today, we need to know what happened in our intelligence community so we don't repeat those deadly mistakes. Instead, Pat Roberts chooses to play politics. He chooses to protect the mistakes of his this administration in order to save his own party. Pat Roberts is as un-American as they come.

Three years ago tomorrow night was when our news channels filled with images of bombs exploding in Baghdad. 9:34pm est. time will mark the anniversary of the actual start of the invasion.

So where have we gone since then? Well we did make it to Baghdad with little effort. We did find Saddam Hussein. That’s about it for the good points..

Now here we sit 3 years later and where are we. We have lost 2,318 soldiers, over 30,000 Iraqi citizens; spent over half a trillion dollars (increasing by $200 million a day) and we sit here, isolated from the rest of the world. What does our President have to say about the war now?

"More fighting and sacrifice will be required," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "For some, the temptation to retreat and abandon our commitments is strong. Yet there is no peace, there's no honor and there's no security in retreat. So America will not abandon Iraq to the terrorists who want to attack us again."

Basically the Bush plan for Iraq is the same it has been since the invasion. Think of it as football. We see upsets time and time again. A team takes to the field with an over optimistic attitude because their opponents rated a large underdog. Of course that over optimistic team comes home with their heads held down low because they were just upset. I am not saying our outcome in Iraq will be the same because we can change the rules. We can redefine what we call a win. True in war, the only winner is war.

Interesting enough, on the same week that President Bush starts a new
campaign to regain support for the war in Iraq, an article comes out in a
Turkish newspaper talking about how “Eighty two Iraqi lawmakers from across the
political spectrum have pressed for the withdrawal of the US-led occupation
troops from their country.”. The article is very interesting and with the
certain biased views our local mainstream media seems to lend its self towards
today, I am more compelled to be in agreement with this article. If you would
like to read it, please visit
here.

So should we be shocked that the Iraqi’s would now want their liberators to
vacate their country? I would have to say it is no shock at all. Consider the
rash of bombings and attacks we read about and see on the evening news. They are
a daily event and killing many Iraqis. The insurgents have made a simple case
that they want the Americans and Coalition forces out. Now their efforts to push
this campaign are taking a larger toll on Iraqi citizens. It now seems as though
the Iraqi’s feel they would be more apt to handle the problem alone than with
our aide.

Remember how we were told we would go in and be praised and the Iraqi’s would
throw flowers at us as they cheer for our aide in liberating them? This was the
scene painted numerous times by the administration in the weeks leading up to
the invasion to give the American people a better acceptance of the upcoming
war. However we are now more then two years into it and we have not yet seen
this warm welcome. Now we are seeing an increasing resistance to our presence
that is costing more and more American and Iraqi lives on a daily basis.