OR: It May Be Much Worse than We Thought
Politics is very much the "art of the debateable." Every one is entitled to an opinion and the way we settle the conflict over viewpoints is an election (coming right up, one long election night!). But before you take the conservatives at their word over all the wonderful things we are saying we do in Iraq, I have a website you should visit. Link is a site run by soldiers, featuring stories from soldiers predominantly now returned from Iraq.
The reason you should hear "their stories" is that you might think from JU that every soldier supports the way we conducted the war and the peace in Iraq. That would be not true. The story of Specialist Richard Murphy, an MP who served in Abu Gharib and elsewhere is especially revealing of a war fought in a way much like a 4 year old would approach a Rubik's Cube.
Having read interviews with SPC Murphy I know that he is very much upset about the way the soldiers were "mislead" in Iraq and how other servicemen who are currently there feel we have no sense of direction. When a friend suggested he wasn't alone and that there were many others unhappy with the management in Iraq I went to the website. Murphy notes that at Abu Gharib he was in charge of over 300 prisoners and the stress on the MP's was overwhelming. This does not excuse what occured there, but the bottom line is that the stress was caused by a lack of leadership, training, and manpower.
This is, of course, where the politics enters into the equation. We ask "Who's responsible for this? and Why don't we know what's going on?" when leadership is so much of the debate over whom we elect. My first thought on this is that it reflects the problems that are inherent when a political party (the Republicans) do not agree with what their leader (Mr. Bush) is doing. This week we heard from Senators Hagel, McCain and Kyl, all Republicans, speak about how badly things were going in Iraq and how we needed to change course if we are going to make progress. "The fact is, we're in trouble. We're in deep trouble in Iraq," said Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees. (Quote from CNN.Com)
Many conservative Republicans are saying Bush is not a conservative, the policies of the administration are not responsible and the White House are "out of control." These include unlikely bedfellows like John McCain and Pat Buchanan who from both sides of the party blast the President for his reluctance to change from what they think are failed policies.
Remember, thus far, I haven't included a Democratic opinion of the policies.
The point is that Republicans have a sense of values not shared by the White House. They believe in smaller government, responsible fiscal and economic policy, and shared responsibility between the federal and state government. But a projection of a 10 to 12 trillion dollar deficit is not something a Republican would ever vote for on his own volition. A war that goes on and on and threatens to become extended far into the future is also not a good selling point with Republicans.
We are now enterring the last 40 days of the campaign and Mr. Bush needs his party behind him more than ever. This is especially true in the midwest and southwest where polls show Kerry is neck and neck with the President. But his attitude towards his party being one of "I'm the boss" like Geroge Steinbrenner on a bad day means the party machinery may well take the election off in terms of getting out the vote.
It's a problem Mr. Bush can't afford. Remember, not all soldiers wear uniforms. Some of them wear suits.