ACT II

            In my opinion, the wars we are engaging in are a joke.  Plain and simple.  The war in Iraq, the war on terrorism, it's all the same.  Just a bunch of bullshit the public is being fed to keep us from paying too much attention to what is happening domestically.  Unfortunately for our government, far too many of us have bored of this Al-Qaeda mess, especially in the wake of this most recent economic crisis hitting the United States.  I am firmly against the war in Iraq, and the mistake it has become.

           For the record, I give 100% support to our troops.  I have a lot of friends, classmates and co-workers that have been, or are still, overseas.  They all decided of their own will to join the military, and I have no qualms with that.  My concern is that I'll find out one of them is coming home in a flag-draped casket.  I shudder to think that I'm going to lose someone else in my life.  You are fighting for my freedom, for our freedom.  I will always support you.  I just have issue with our hierarchy of imbeciles sending you off to fight their war.

           Now, there are reasons we need to be at war.  They just are not very good reasons, or of the best intentions.  Sure, we need to find Osama bin Laden and all of his upper echelon comrades.  However, is it worth the lives of American and Coalition military?  According to several news agencies and websites, including The Washington Post and antiwar.com, we've lost over 4,100 U.S. military personnel in Iraq to date.  We've lost over 600 more in Afghanistan.  The Coalition forces have lost over 300 lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Is finding bin Laden worth that many deaths?  On the flipside, how many Iraqis have lost their lives?  Sacramento News & Review has quoted several media outlets and journalists that put the number of Iraqi casualties anywhere between 37,000 and 1.2 million.  37,000 is a lot, but 1.2 million dead is just an outrageous number.  No one has kept an official count of the Iraqi dead, but no matter how you look at the range, that's just a damn lot of death. Iraq Body Count is a group that pores over media reports in hopes of maintaining a more accurate count of Iraqi casualties, and their number is hovering around 90,000.  Whichever number you look at, how many of them are innocent families, elderly, or children?  Again, is finding Osama bin Laden worth that many innocent deaths?

            Crude oil is another reason we are in the Persian Gulf, despite what our politicians say.  Contrary to what many believe, we don't import all of our petroleum products from the Middle East.  We import more from Canada than we do any other country.  This website breaks down U.S. petroleum imports by country.  We get almost as much oil combined from Mexico and Nigeria as we do from ALL of the Middle East.  Do we really need their oil?  The short-term answer is yes, because of our dependency.  The long-term answer is a resounding no, since the world's oil reserve is being severely depleted, and we are just now realizing that we're going to need another form of energy real soon.  The $246 billion we spent on imported petroleum products last year (LINK) could have been spent differently.  We really need to invest in alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind energy.  The more we spend domestically helps our economy grow, which we desperately need.  The less we spend internationally helps lessen our dependence on imports.

           Speaking of spending, are you aware of how much the war in Iraq costs?  I won't type the exact amount here, because by the time I'm done typing this blog, it'll be much more.  Let's just say it's over $500 billion and climbing.  I've got a counter on my page if you'd like to see an accurate amount.  Click on the link on that counter.  It takes you to a site that breaks down the amount each state, each county, each city is spending on average.  It also breaks down what the money spent on the war could have been used for, such as education and other things that seem to have lost importance over the years.  Shouldn't we be worrying more about our own domestic issues, as opposed to putting funds toward things we should be trying our damnedest to cut back on?

            We're also using this war to expand our fight against terrorism.  Terrorism is always going to be an issue, because no country is ever going to be content staying out of another country's business.  Our country has had to deal with it on a national level (Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh), and an international level (Pearl Harbor, Osama bin Laden).  Terrorism is always going to be a problem.  But why did we send our armed forces to the Middle East?  To protect our investments.  Sure, we're looking for bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, etc.  But we're also making sure the oil fields aren't set ablaze.  Homeland Security has become a joke.  Hell, there's even an 8-year-old boy on the Homeland Security terror watch list (LINK).  It's like they're not even trying.  All I'm saying is that we're making excuses to rip a country apart.  It's like blowing up your neighbor's house because his kid hit a baseball through your window.

            I'm not even gonna bother getting into that whole fiasco that was Blackwater.  It's bad enough that we're still over there.  Now we're hiring mercenaries to do the dirty work carte-blanche?  How about we use them to take out all of our multi-billionaire CEOs and distribute the money evenly to all working Americans?  I like my way of thinking.  You should too.

            Last November, Bryan, Michelle and I went to the Crest Theater in Sacramento to see Henry Rollins perform his spoken word gig.  I can't speak for Bryan and Michelle, but I sat there in awe of this man.  He talked about flying out to Libya, Iraq, all of the places that are supposed to be unsafe for an American civilian to venture.  He did it anyways.  He asked store owners, cab drivers, just random people, what they thought of Americans in general.  Every single person told him that they had no problems with Americans.  Just our politicians and government.  No problems with our country, just the people that run it.  Our country has become a bully that gets involved in everyone else's business.  We can't solve our own problems, which apparently makes us experts at solving someone else's.

           Our leaders can't leave well enough alone.  That being said, this war will continue because we have to protect our assets (oil), we have to weed out all of the terrorists (bin Laden), and we can't back down, because then we look like we surrender (France).  We as Americans have to do what we can to end this war.  Support our troops, but please don't support what we're making them do.

           In conclusion, I hate this war.  It's driven a huge spike through the heart of our country.  It's created more friction between political parties.  It's helped bring our economy to the brink of a second Great Depression.  It's made our country look like the punk kid that beats up another kid for his lunch money.  I don't care whether you're a conservative, a liberal, whatever.  All of this debt, all of this death, it's not good for any of us.  We need to make our voices heard.  If we don't, this mistake is going to continue, and we are all going to suffer, be it physically, emotionally, or financially.  Step outside the partisan lines, and think for yourself.  That's all I'm asking for:  Just think for yourself.

            Thank you.