IRAQ-WHEN????

Probably the most important thing that I personally learned at the Convention is that, if you have a cold, don't stand in the rain for an hour waiting for the bus to come and pick you up. That has the tendency to add an additional 2 to 3 weeks to the cold. Hold on to that info as if may become important to you some day. Now on to my convention report or opinion, which lacks the definition of having a cold.

After reading newspapers as to what America thinks of Iraq, I thought I would check it out with our delegates. It was somewhat strange that very few were concerned as to whether the war was right or wrong at the beginning or even now-It was sort of like-there it is, now what? It was not apathy; the primary concerns dealt with what was happening with our troops in Iraq and those returning to our country. The unacceptability of the death and injuries was primary. How can we protect the lives of the returning men and women so that they would not encounter past failures of treatment-physical, mental, and economic-generally all together? The treatments of the past were definitely unacceptable and had to change-as did the Laws of War and the Rules of Engagement.

Right after the Convention, we came together to commemorate 9/11-with a reading there of the names of those who died-many were concerned with where and what type of memorial there should be than with Iraq. Names don't signal progress.

Everyone was waiting for the September report of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who presented their reports from the field in Iraq. They reported that the Surge was actually a success in part. The Iraqi Parliamentary vacations seem to have been successful, and President Bush then goes on the air and tells our citizens that he supports the General and the Ambassador, and he finds that a political free zone is available so that some of the Surge troops can be redeployed to the United States.

This is so even if new troops must be found and required to replace them, or the tour of duty of the remaining troops may have to be extended. Part of the reason for this is that our inventory of troops has gone down; even though we have more troops than are needed in Europe and in Korea [both areas which prefer to insist American troops must be kept there rather than having to subject their own citizens or funding for defense]. Those troops should be drastically reduced in Korea and Europe.

The Democrats continue to insist upon unattainable dates for return-which they fully understand are not available to them without Republican support, and then they would have to avoid a Bush veto.

So, like a Monopoly game, the politicians of both parties play a game of political war with each other, while a small number of Americans die each day-maybe the politicians don't think the number of one to 18 American humans dying daily is important enough to forget about 2008 or to be courageous enough to acknowledge that, while the Sunnis and Shiites are continuing to murder each other, they are united in their hate for the American troops. There will be no stability in Iraq until we are gone. Or until their country is divided intro three parts with some sort of oil sharing.

With that recognition in place, our politicians should immediately stop their vote war and face the fact that we are in a dysfunctional political crisis. We must, with no trepidation or compromise, tell the Iraqis and our Middle East "friends" that the time is Now-that we will not sanction our Troop deaths-that we oppose the Dollar store type purchase of our major financial assets by our Middle East "friends" to reduce our ability to stand strong-to consider our National Capital as being in Dubai or Riyadh, et al, since we won't need a Congress. Maybe they can go on vacation with the Iraqi Parliament.

We have been slipping into a world which disrespects us, and we seem to be falling into a pattern of acceptance because our leaders would rather fight among themselves. Those in our Nation who are either Anti-War or Pro-Administration prance about enjoying their rallies and pompously sanctify themselves without the ability to change.

Dissolution seems to have become our Nation's Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). So, unless we, as a people, require integrity in government and adamantly pursue change recognizing the dominance of our super-power status and acting as such, we will wake up one day to find we no longer own our nation. Although then we will know that we have leadership of autocratic foreign wealth or a dictatorship of the power hungry, and who really cares as long as you have food in your stomach and bread on the table (seems that I heard that once before).