i was watching the situation last night and i have to say that the opening comments by tucker carlson and monica crowley totally mirrored my feelings on iraq at this point. it’s easy to be frustrated and confused about iraq when good news is not readily available. i believe the american people understand the importance of supporting our military men and women and their families. i think that we also want to support our commander-in-chief as well. many of us voted for him. after 9/11, we appreciated his strong message toward the terrorists, leaving no doubt that he was willing and able to hunt them down and destroy them.
progress has been made in iraq and in the war on terror. the president needs to show us this. this is not something karl rove can do. this is not a job for conservative talk radio, the mainstream media, or even conservative blogs. it’s the president’s job to give us a good reason to keep trusting him. i hope he can…because public support is necessary to win any war.
success in iraq in my view doesn’t mean making their government and laws exactly like ours. if we say that the iraqis should decide their own future (and we actually mean it), then unfortunately we have little control over what they do with that future. there are countries with a large muslim population, like the UK for example, that don’t allow Islam to dictate their foreign policy. we could argue, i suppose, about the internal effects of radical islam to the UK, but that’s a debate for another day.
the new iraq should value the rights of everybody, including women. that would be the best scenario, but i don’t know how much the US can insist on while still allowing for the autonomy of the iraqi leadership. should the US push for those rights? YES, and the UN could make itself useful for once and facilitate the negotiation process between the opposing parties on the iraqi constitution. if we don’t want the iraqi government to be considered a puppet of the united states, then we should allow them to make their own choices. after all, that is what makes them an independent, self-determining country.
Technorati : iraq, monica crowley, tucker carlson