Who's accountable? We are!

[CarlSheeler4U]

A Republican Congressman slimes the net with provocative words directed towards a teenager. It’s not the first time and occurs with other elected officials. We pretend he doesn’t associate with Democrats and none knew of this behavior. Are we baffled the GOP leadership closed ranks around Mr. Foley until the deception was revealed?

In this election year, Iraq is another litmus test. If you believe all those generals are wrong and terrorism can be contained in Iraq, then you likely support the “stay the course” candidate, especially in a red state. If you’re an incumbent in a blue state who voted for invading, then “you were mislead” and don’t support the war. It nullifies your accountability. Then there’s the minority who opposed invasion from the beginning. In our US Senate, the only Republican who opposed the invasion was Senator Lincoln Chafee. So is he heralded as an independent leader or just a GOP enabler?

The reasons given for invading Iraq were to depose a dictator, Saddam Hussein, because he allegedly supported state sponsored terrorism and was believed to have WMD. North Korea has been selling military equipment to our enemies for decades. Their leader is a dictator whose countrymen have starved to death. He appears to have nuclear capability; yet, the US is not going it alone and attacking -- instead it’s asking for more sanctions.

Wasn’t this the criteria for invading Iraq? It’s time for fundamental truths. The US military is the muscle for US politics. The number of US combat troops is finite with a percentage deployed around the world. This differs from total troops with most in a support, not a combat, role. Nations, both friend and foe, know our troop strength. We needed almost all our combat troops to have effectively closed down Iraq. This would have lead to a quicker stabilization and withdrawal.

North Korea, a “rogue” nation, knew our elected government is mired in Iraq based on lies and incompetent prosecution of the war by those not wearing the uniform. They know our troop strength. They assume we’d not attack with China to their north. They believed our capabilities and foreign support are limited and they wished to expose it. So why did they detonate their bomb? They want economic and political concessions.

So, I’m outraged over the absence of indignation over the growing global implications of our presence in Iraq. Politicians are enabled by our families that see the intransigence of Mr. Foley as greater than the Iraq debacle. Strategic thinkers in Iran are assessing the same thing. They’re wondering whether we have the stomach for a draft, because the troop strength needed to sustain an Iran ground occupation would necessitate having one. So who’s accountable for the Democracy we patriotically defend before November 7? The people are the government. We need to be honest with ourselves and expect others to be honest with us or suffer the consequences of our selective bias.