General Tommy Franks, speaking at a meeting of the NRA, said we are missing the bigger picture if we focus on the number of lives lost in Iraq instead of on the war against terror. I wonder what the families of our dead soldiers would have to say about that. I know some of them would agree, but I think some of them would disagree. And I wonder what the Iraqi people would have to say as well. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have also died in this misbegotten war. Did they also die so that America can be secure? Did anyone ask them to make that sacrifice for us? Is such a sacrifice moral?

General Franks: if you won’t let us focus on the number of Americans lost in this war, do you mind if we focus on the number of Iraqis killed? Do you mind if we focus on all the money we have squandered in Iraq? Do you mind if we focus on how the war is wrecking our economy? Do you mind if we focus on the number of terrorists we have created by our actions? I am willing to not focus on the number of American lives lost in Iraq. But neither do I wish to focus on the war against terrorism. I would like to focus on the morality of attacking a country that was no threat to us. I would like to focus on the morality of causing the deaths of countless innocent people. I think we need to ask more questions about Haditha. One reason I want to focus on these issues is because you can bet that these are the issues upon which many terrorists will focus. We’re just giving them the ammunition that fuels their hatred. And if we have another terrorist attack in the United States, or in Egypt, or in Spain, or in England, or in Bali, I think we should ask ourselves what role George War Bush and his policies had in that attack.

We’re fighting an insurgency in Iraq, not the terrorists, and now we’re also faced with an insurgency in Afghanistan. (But the insurgency is in its last throes, right? Looks to me like it is growing and spreading.) The administration keeps telling us over and over that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror. But the war on terror doesn’t have a front. We may be fighting some people in Iraq, but that in itself is not going to prevent another 9/11.

And what about General Franks? Well, he comes across to me as a spokesman for the administration. I don’t respect the administration anymore, so I don’t really pay any attention to what their spokesmen say. It’s all just politics.


Iraq, war, Tommy Franks, Bush, peace, Haditha, terrorism, Middle East, politics,

NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.