I want to go on record as having been against the war in Afghanistan. It went down absolutely as I predicted. We killed thousands of civilians. We changed the government from something unreliable into something that would let us build our oil pipeline without interference. We failed to capture Osama bin Laden and we failed to stop al-Quaeda. In short, it was yet another exercise in Imperialism. And then we went on to do the same thing in Iraq. Only this time, it was too late to stop the train George Bush had set in motion. Next stop Iran! I can tell you right now. My kids aren't going.
Terrorism IS a law enforcement problem. The last time we dealt successfully with terrorists was after the 1993 WTC bombing. Then again, we used law enforcement appropriately to deal with the Oklahoma City terrorist attack. We used law enforcement action to catch, try, and imprison those responsible. The results were just and effective. The guilty were apprehended and punished.
Other countries used to cooperate with our efforts to apprehend the terrorists. But they are starting to cease their efforts on our behalf. We learned from the Huffington Post, yesterday, that the Italian government has issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents who apprehended a suspected terrorist in Rome and sent the man to Egypt where he was tortured.
I'm 45 years old and there have been wars all my life. But none have been worth the price we paid as a nation to fight them. Now I am a mother of three, a son and two daughters. I am not interested in having any of them enter the military to fight useless wars in which they might be killed or maimed or, even worse, in which they might kill or maim others.
During my entire adulthood, I have lived through the hypocrisy of fake Christians trumpeting their "family values" throughout society. They have protested music, films, and video games for pedalling sex and violence to children. Well, guess what? It's the military that pedals violence to our children as they reach adulthood. Make no mistake about it. The problem of soul destroying violence is real. It harms those who witness it and it harms those who participate. Yet, now these same people want to act like hawks and support endless war?
Raising my children has been the most important work of my life. I have raised them to live in peace and tolerance with others. My training is very strong. I believe that the military would have to do severe psychological harm to my children in order to get them ready to kill others. I am certain that the act of harming others would be tremendously harmful to them. I don't care what anyone says and I don't care about the draft. My kids aren't going to war so that this empire can perpetuate itself.
I am so sick of democrats being dishonest with us about their co-dependent relationship with the war machine. Not one thing we have done since 9/11 has been effective in dealing with the real crimes that were committed against individuals and families. They are all still waiting for justice to be done. Democrats, if you want to be truly responsive to real people's real concerns, then please, please start pounding the table to get some actual laws enforced and bring the 9/11 conspirators to justice. As we have seen from the successful conclusion to the Killens trial, there is no statute of limitations on murder. It is not too late.
We have only had one trial. All those people sitting in prison on Guantanomo Bay and only one 9/11 trial? 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead and only one trial? Thousands of Afghan civilians dead and only one trial? Torture prisons popping up across the globe but only one trial. When is our government going to actually do its job?
To those who say that we should have a draft to replenish the army, I say no. It is the military that allows us to spread empire like a plague across the globe. We need to starve the beast.