Nine-eleven and Iraq: It's Left vs Right

Everywhere we look, there's hostility on the airwaves and in the newspapers and on the net. The left blast the Whitehouse for hastily assembling a case for war against the former Iraqi regime and the right squabash 'dems' for their apparent distrust. In my view, both sides are full of hot air.

I think citizens are, for the most part, very careful to measure the sensational words they hear and read, and are willing to drill down to the literal meaning of these contrasting statements. For instance, one story cited that a majority of Germans think the US staged the September 11 attacks. But when you get to the exact verbage, you learn that a few Germans believe it's "possible" that Americans "could have" been behind the assault on our soil. When you put it that way, you would have to either be naive or have full faith that no one in our country could possibly benefit from such action. The truth is that people everywhere do bad and nasty things. And everything that happens will benefit someone somewhere. So sure, it is conceivable, while improbable.

I do think that the Whitehouse carefully crafted its campaign to bring force to bear in Iraq. I think the left plays on public feelings that war is bad. Both sides exhibiting over-zealous and presumptious behavior. None of the talking heads speak for me, or against me. No one, to date, has hit the nail on the head in reflecting how I, as an American citizen, really feel about all this.

I think trusting the government -- any government -- is afundamentally bad policy for all people. I reserve my faith for God, and I generally only trust good friends. If you're a politician and you want my support and my vote, you'd better prove every day that you're up to the task of making the right choices on my behalf. I will not leave you unchecked and I will hold your feet to the fire if you deceive me.

I think it's a cheap shot to suggest anti-war protestors don't support our troops. I was a soldier. Yes, I was willing to fight and die for America. I still believe in the prinicples of our founding fathers and the rights of people to live free and not to have those liberties our men of war died to protect taken from them. So I support our troops. However, soldiers follow orders given to them, ultimately by the government -- that entity no one should trust. Realizing this truth means you sometimes oppose what soldiers do, but you do so without personally blaming them. Why is it so tough for our outspoken members of society to refelect this dynamic in their rhetoric? Perhaps they truly do not have faith in peoples' reasoning abilities.

Along with many of the values we have lost over the last generation, we have lost the ability and skill to debate. We now argue and accuse. We fight like playground bullies. And we do so in front of the children, which ultimately defines who they become. I hope the silent majority still believe they can make a difference, and will vote with their feet at every corner. I hope the thoughtful of our society keep speaking out and objecting to the sophomoric bickering.

We are one country and many peoples. But we get to define who we are by the words and actions we choose. I hope the hostility and in-fighting will subside very soon.