These are my thoughts and my thoughts only. Stream on consciousness type thoughts not asking anyone else to accept them.
This is a painful conclusion I am coming to. It's been slow in coming. I started out a huge Obama fan, fan being fanatic in the truest since of the word. In him I saw hope for America. Silly to ask so much of one person but I thought he could truly use his awesome political power to help change the country, maybe even the world.
Now I am afraid I may not be able to vote for him this fall. I just wrote that I would in a comment but thinking on it I'm wavering. Here is why.
War in Iraq, policy on Iran, policy on Afghanistan: Obama has stated repeatedly he is not against all wars only stupid wars. This is something that scares me. War is such an awful thing that only the most dire situations should force war. An existential dilemma for our country for example. I don't like the phrasing there it scares me.
Obama has voted to fund the war since being in the Senate. It has been said he did so to support the troops or some rubbish; truth is that no matter how treasonous the President is he would not have left Americans unprotected in a war zone he would have brought them home. Or, leaving the troops unprotected, we would have impeached him. The rhetoric of why to continue to fund the war in Iraq is nonsense. Not logical so they deceived us. Ok fine political expediency more important than the billions we've wasted, the thousands we've killed, the thousands of young men and women we've lost.
Afghanistan/Pakistan: Al Queda is in Afghanistan and on the border or inside Pakistan Obama tells us. Where are they precisely? The terrain is too rough for us to know but they're there. We just need to send tens of thousands of troops there to fight them there. Its either fight them there or fight them here.
I've already called bullshit on this in a different diary. Either we know from the CIA or some other intelligence agency where they are or we don't. If we do they'd be dead right now. If we know they are in the mountains somewhere hiding out then they are not a realistic threat to the U.S. Obama has said regarding Al Queda in Iraq we don't need to exterminate them or have them not reconstitute we need merely to make them not a viable threat.
7 years and no terrorist attack in America. Lets say every year a 9/11 happened inside of the US. Every year we lost a handful of building and three thousand people. How many years would go by before we approached the 2-3 trillion dollars we will have spent, the million lives we have taken?
Obama wants me to believe we must send troops to Afghanistan to fight a mythical foe and I reject that. Fuck you bring our troops home. Do not leave tens of thousands of troops in Iraq.
Iran:
(March 3rd Chicago Sun Times) Sen. Barack Obama said Friday the use of military force should not be taken off the table when dealing with Iran, which he called "a threat to all of us."
Speaking before a pro-Israel crowd at a downtown hotel, Obama also repeated his call for a phased pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq and strongly backed a strong U.S. relationship with Israel.
Iran is a threat to all of us Mr. Obama? Why would you say something like this. Let's review.
Iran has no nuclear weapons, they stopped their program in 2003 (although when he said that the latest NIE hadn't been released). Israel has a vastly superior air force, navy, and conventional army than Iran. The United States has military bases in Turkey, Azerbijan, Uzbekistan, tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan, 160,000+ in Iraq, Aircraft carriers in the Persian gulf, along with nuclear submarines. Couple this with the Israeli nuclear deterrent and I would say that Iran is a threat to NO ONE in the region. If they sneeze too loudly they will be obliterated.
So why would Obama say Iran was a threat to us all? If Al Queda is a boogeyman why fight in Afghanistan. Why waste a question with General Petreus regarding Al Queda in Iraq when they make up 2% of the resistance?
Economy: Obama is a supporter of free trade, the same free trade that is a boon for corporations but takes away jobs from Americans. Though he wants to reform NAFTA and the WTO he doesn't specifically say how "environmental standards blah blah blah Americans can compete with anyone" or some nonsense. In contrast, Kucinich would have completely ended NAFTA. Trade is good but the term FREE TRADE is now just a phrase meant to hide truth which is that free trade is corporate trade. It makes it easier for corporations to rape not just the working people of our country but other countries as well woohooo!
Health Care: Boon to the insurance companies. Why do we need insurance companies as the middle man? Someone explain this to me please. European countries have state run health care systems and they work just fine. WHY DO WE HAVE TO PAY INSURANCE COMPANIES BILLIONS TO HAVE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE?!
Nuclear Energy: Scary. Obama supports it.
There are actually more problems I have with Obama and even after all that I just wrote I've been a huge supporter of his. I've donated money, called people to vote for him, and generally lauded Obama in comparison to Clinton. But now it may all be just too much. I don't know if I can deceive myself any longer. Can I really vote for this guy with a clear conscience? Then his actions will be my actions and will I be proud of them? When he sends troops from Iraq to Aghanistan to fight ghosts and people are killed what will I think my vote accomplished?
Is McCain so bad that I should vote for Obama that might be my excuse. But there are other candidates although I am not a Nader supporter. Maybe Ill write-in Kucinich and call it an election.
Anyway that's my rant for today and my consistent evolution from Democrat to I don't know what the hell I am now...
EDIT: I would never ever ever ever ever ever vote for John McCain. My diary could just as easily be a rant against the two-party system though. I don't want to vote against someone. I want to vote FOR someone.