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I encourage spirited debate!

This post is about the Iraq war...not about bashing Obama.

The war in Iraq is the most dastardly action that America has ever engaged in. And those who voted to give GWB the authority to go to war are as responsible as he is. Hillary Clinton's vote for the war will not go away, and her plan to "obliterate" Iran, is just more of the same saber-rattling idiocy of GWB.
Our country and each and every citizen needs to demand that we return to diplomacy. The only way Americans can retake the high road is to stop taking the low road and stop believing in the simplistic war-mongering rhetoric aimed at the lowest common denominator of our citizens.

We need to get out of Iraq militarily, we need to launch the greatest diplomatic mission ever considered in the Middle East. We need to bring Israel to the peace table, by refusing to support their military-industrial complex as a puppet for our own war-mongering adventurism.

Thank you for your opinon!

Hillary does have a lot of military support, hopefully they will now go to Barack

its time to

{{{Bring Them Home!}}}

Best,
D. Tree
(just another uninformed, irrational, emotional, and illogical kool-aide drinker!)

Is what it is all about!

That is something a Clinton supporter and an Obama supporter can agree on!

Adam,
I honor your service in Iraq. I wonder how you avoided several more tours of service there? Is it possible you might get sent back?

Now about the war. There is no way we can solve all the problems we have caused by meddling in the Middle East. We have been actively stirring the pot there since shortly after World War I. The last thing we should do is increase our military might there or continue on as we have to try to force our policies down the throats of small, defenseless governments by our sheer overbearing and unconscionable will. So it is not just about Iraq, but the whole region. However, Iraq, who was unjustly invaded on gross and false pretenses at a time when the USA was psychologically vulnerable after 9/11, deserves to be free of an occupying force, deserves to benefit from its own natural resources---and practically its ONLY resource: OIL. We do not have a right to control the resources of other nations and would fight back fiercely if WE were the nation 'occupied' and whose only resource was about to be controlled by outsiders. The anguish of the war in Iraq is not only that we have savagely damaged physically more than 25,000 fine US military but as we speak, we are over the 5,000 mark of dead( mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters to be with us no more!), and the figure continues to climb every day. While we speak of our losses, let's consider the losses of the innocent Iraqui people. More than 1.5 MILLION Iraquis have fled their own country, lost their homes to squatters(less well off folks of opposition political views, clans,traditions) or complete destruction, and are now 'refugees' probably forever. If they come home, nothing will be the same for them. Many or most of them are the 'brains'(doctors, lawyers, professors, engineers, scientists of all kinds, educators, business owners, managers of the infrastructure with critical knowledge and experience to make society better) of Iraq. Those who could afford or manage to find resources to get out just to stay safe and alive. We are speaking of entire families with grannies, gramps, little children, teenagers who now can't continue their education, or families are torn apart because you lose your independence of life when you have had to give up all you have just to save your life. The rest, those who had no choice but to stay in Iraq, have lived through deprivation, anguish and fear daily. Everyone is terrified, few know who to trust, many have taken 'street justice' into their own hands, the opportunists within clans of Iraquis fiercely pushing for power, and unaccustomed to any idea whatsoever of modern political governance. The only 'governor' is the gun, the roadside bomb, the threat of harm to dissenters. Rule by fear. This is the society we have set in motion in Iraq. On the other hand, The Iraquis are not stupid people.There are still those who can form a sensible, workable system of government that takes all the issues of their society into account. They need to be allowed the privilege of evolving their own government and national structures. It is not impossible for them to accomplish this without our presence. We have never had a right to be there. We should leave, as Barack says, militarily soon, and in as constructive way as possible, remove all other presence as soon as possible.

The benefits for the USA to withdraw from Iraq are tremendous. Saving Billions of $ weekly is the first huge benefit. Saving our military so they can defend US instead, is another. We can shift our focus to diplomacy where it has been so sorely lacking for the terms of Bush, Bush and Reagan. We can reset our priorities to produce opportunities for strengthening our own educational system from parental education at age '0' right on through the university level. Now I ask you to look at the issues section of Barack's website and see all the other concerns we face and need to attend to. All these things will be enhanced if we are not in Iraq!

I would welcome any comments.

Marcia Riquelme of DeForest,WI
--- and yes I am a statewide deputy voter registrar as well as enthusiastic volunteer for Barack.