This morning I got an e-mail from John Edwards, asking me to contact my state Senators to voice my opposition to the War. The e-mail had an easy way to look up my Senators' phone numbers and web-sites (which at this point I should just commit to memory), and so I sent them both an e-mail, since it was too early to call their offies. In the text portion of the e-mail, I began to ask them to do everything possible to end the Iraq War, and to take our men and women out of harm's way. And then it occurred to me. This isn't a war, it's a civil war.
I love the blogosphere, because I think sites like Daily Kos do serve to fuel a reality-based response to the MSM. The peoople who post here know when we are being hyped, and we call the MSM shills on it. We've seen the "surge" versus the "escalation" debate. Now, I propose that, whenever we discuss the Iraq War, whether here or with our friends and neighbors, we call it the Iraq Civil War.
Several stories this weekend were most disturbing to me, and probably encapsulate why we should not be in Iraq. One was a story positing whether Al-Maliki executed Saddam as a "wedding gift" to his daughter or son. (The conclusion was a big "Who knows!"). Another questioned whether one of Saddam's masked executioners was Muqtada Al-Sadr, with close-ups of his nose and mouth, and his ring, as supposed "evidence" that it was. (Now, I don't necessarily buy the supposed evidence, but neither do I have any basis to say that he was not one of the executioners. He is one of Al-Maliki's closest advisors, and I don't doubt that it would sound like a fun afternoon to him, if someone proposed it.) The third story details the "botched executions," (whatever that means) of Saddam's half-brother, and another former Iraqi official, in which one was decapitated. All of this under a Shiite-led majority that is thirsty for revenge against the Sunnis, and with the Shiite militias blamed for the majority of the sectarian violence in Iraq. Finally, this morning, the United Nations is claiming that 34,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in violence in 2006 alone, more than three times the number reported by the Iraqi government. 34,000 Iraqi civilians dead, and we're going to fix this with an additional 20,000 American troops?
So in writing to my Senators, I decided to ask that they do everything possible to take our brave men and women out of harm's way in the Iraq Civil war. Many right-wingers support this war because we, all of us, speak and act as if it is OUR war, America's war, or Bush's war. If we begin to call a spade a spade, and hand this war to the people who own it, the Shiites and Sunnis, then maybe our Senators will realize that the American people have come to see the situation for what it is, and they will refuse to provide more funding for the Iraq Civil War. Let's teach the shameless MSM one final lesson about our community, and the power we have.
Just calll it the Iraq Civil War!