Reply #5: I'm afraid I will lose my "progressive" credentials here [View All]

[Recursion]

I am a veteran of this war. I'm not the only one who thinks like this.

I will support any candidate, even an otherwise non-progressive Republican or Libertarian, whose platform includes a complete withdrawl from Iraq at the earliest possible time, as long as that candidate's platform does not threaten our fundamental civil liberties (so I'd be more likely to go Libertarian than GOP).

I consider our occupation of Iraq to be the greatest single threat to our national security since the development of a Soviet nuclear arsenal -- possibly even greater. Any candidate who does not recognize this, and does not advocate breaking contact to a more strategic series of posts (hell, I mean just go back to Bahrain and Diego Garcia) in my opinion does not have this country's security at heart.

This may seem odd for a DU'er, but in a lot of ways I'm a hawk. I was in the USMC for 7 years; got out a sergeant with a couple of medals on my chest. I believe in military force and I believe that a nation in America's position must use that force, from time to time, to maintain its security and interests.

But the simple fact is that our continued occupation of Iraq has weakened our strategic position immeasurably. We absolutely *must* fall back to more defensible positions as soon as is practicable (and that is within weeks, not within years). Any candidate who does not support an immediate withdrawl, I cannot in good conscience vote for.

Our dearest asset is our liberty. Second to that is our security. It is easy to defend both; in fact, the two go hand in hand. The more our liberties are defended, the more secure we are. Patrick Henry understood it. Why don't these jackasses?

I will not vote for a Democrat who does not advocate the earliest practical withdrawl of American forces from the trap we fell into in Iraq (OBL is smart, and he knew exactly what we would do. If you think he didn't expect this, I must respectfully disagree with you.) I will vote Libertarian, or Green, or deface my ballot. I will not boycott the election because too many men and women died face down in the mud to give me a vote for me to just not show up. But I will not vote for any candidate whatsoever who wants to keep us in the rat trap any longer.