Morning Coffee (08)

Good Late Morning;

I got a late jump on the day today, so forgive me. I know that some of you wait with baited breath for the wonderous insight I bring and simply cannot function without your Morning Coffee. Who can?

We're beginning to see the "new face" of Washington already. Several Democratic leaders in Congress have said that they are going to "press for troop reductions in Iraq" within months. It's going to be a "phased redeployment" for all you who are interested in politiko-ese. Carl Levin (D-MI) says, "The point of this is to signal to the Iraqis that the open-ended commitment is over and that they are going to have to solve their own problems." (Emphasis added by me.) Meanwhile, John McCain (R-AZ) stated that there aren't enough troops in Iraq. Of course, the Democrats' desire to get our troops out at all costs is a good one, right?

Well, it is unless you remember this place, what's it called…yeah, Afghanistan. That's it. It took me a minute. For about ten years, we gave a lot of money, equipment, and training to the mujihedeen there because we wanted to see the Soviets' nose bloodied. Well, we got what we wanted, and then we told the Afghans, "you're going to have to solve your own problems." Well, the problem with that, is that their problems became OUR problems. Instead of helping Afghanistan overcome its problems and helping to establish a stable government, we found ourselves in the mountains of the Hindu Kush trying to find a tall gangly Saudi Arabian citizen with an alleged kidney problem. The place turned into a haven for all sorts of bad guys - well, bad to us anyway. (Bad is very subjective.)

Iraq is not Afghanistan. But one shouldn't discount the possibility of it becoming the next Afghanistan, only with the ability to make the ruling nut jobs a lot more wealthy - which in turn allows them to make/procure nastier weapons. What I'm saying here is that if we don't do the job right, then we may be fighting a stronger enemy in the streets of Falluja in another ten years. Do you want to see that happen? I sure as heck don’t want my son fighting for the same streets that my brothers have. I haven't the answers; they don't pay me enough for that sort of thing. But I know a wrong answer when I see it, and putting a timetable on troop withdrawals is absurd for a multitude of reasons.

An apt quote, and one of my favorites of all time: "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell. Just reading this quote gives me goosebumps - Hail to those rough men.

Word of the Day: Abovo (adverb): From the beginning.
On This Day in History: The World Wide Web first began (1990). And the world was never the same - but is it ever?

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend and thanked several veterans for their service as "rough men."