A Waste of Blood and Treasure

The Associate Press reported today from Baghdad:     Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.“We can’t fight our brothers in the Mahdi Army, so we came here to submit our weapons,” one policeman said on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Muqtada al-Sadr had been reported to be working with the Americans and the Iraqi government during these past months since the American surge.  Now all of that has changed.  This is not surprising to me.  There never was an adequate explanation for al-Sadr’s co-operation.

 The real test has finally come and the Iraqi government has failed.  We are in the middle of an Iraqi civil war.  If John McCain has his way we will continue to have troops fighting this war indefinitely.  It is a tragic loss of American life.  Both George W. Bush and John McCain could not be more wrong on this waste of blood and treasure.

I will be Holding My Nose

On November 16, 2007 I wrote on this blog, “I personally dis-associated myself from a friend who showed himself to be a bigot and I would not be part of any group that stood for any bigotry.”

Today Barack Obama stated, “I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies,” Obama said. “I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue.”

Quoting from an AP report, “He said Wright’s controversial statements first came to his attention at the beginning of his presidential campaign last year, and he condemned them. Because of his ties to the 6,000-member congregation church – he and his wife were married there and their daughters baptized – Obama decided not to leave the church.”

On As an Independent I liked Barack Obama.  I voted for him in the Democratic California primary.  I must hold someone I would support for president of the United States to the same standards I set for myself.  Hillary Clinton is no angel (playing the race card, playing on fear, and keeping too many secrets).  John McCain has at least two faults (he opposes a national health care system and would fight a war in Iraq for a hundred years).

When I vote in November I will be holding my nose.