End this War

I got a bumper sticker from Move On in the mail yesterday. It says "ENDLESS WAR" except the LESS is crossed out and replaced by "THIS" so that it reads END This WAR. I'm not usually one to put bumper stickers on my vehicles because I feel that it contributes to the 15 second sound bite mentality. Anything worth saying is worth saying well and we should forget about the sound bite thing, but I liked this one, so it went on the bumper of my pickup. So, on one side of the rear bumper of my pickup reads "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You" and the other side reads " End this War". I'll probably get it ripped off by some young conservative, at least that's what happened to my John Kerry sticker. It's becoming more and more obvious that the war in Iraq is just going to get worse and I'm sure that there is no military solution. I'm just as sure that if we just pull out we will further destabilize the area. I suspect that Iran would take a big chunk out of Iraq and that the Kurds will declare their independence. I think GW should have listened to his daddy and left Saddam alone, because we now have a helluva mess in the Middle East with no good solution in sight.

It amazes me that we hear the same stuff now that we used to hear about Vietnam. The only good thing about this time is that we don't have a draft so that we aren't screwing up the lives of a whole generation of young people. One of the really bad things this time is the use of National Guard troops. This is one of the first times that I can remember where 50 year old guys are being deployed and killed. The National Guard troops leave their families in a real bind, since a Sgt's active duty pay isn't enough to pay for home mortgages, car payments, college tuition and the myriad other things that an established family has. For those folks who rant about supporting the troops, maybe they should get the government to pay their troops better. I can see a lot of bankruptcies as an unintended side effect of invading Iraq.