Usenet rant about Iraq

I spend quite a bit of time on Usenet newsgroups. I mostly stick around the linux-based groups, but every now and then poke my head into other groups, such as alt.politics.democrat. I stumbled into a conversation, and came up with a fairly good rant. Good enough to repost here…

Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 14:23:38 -0500
From: Michael Fierro Newsgroups: alt.computer.consultants,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.democrat[…]
User-Agent: slrn/0.9.8.1pl1 (Debian)
Subject: Re: nancy palosi sets america’s forign policy

On 2007-05-04, Steve rambled on thusly:

> far as your other silly comments I guess 9/11 was just a bad dream and there
> is no Al Qaeda in Iraq at this time. As far as hiding under my bed that’s

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Since we started the war with Iraq,
Al-Qaeda has moved into Iraq, true. But there was no connection between the
two until we changed the dynamics of the region.

> more along the lines of those of you who can’t stomach relatively light
> military casualties thousands of miles away. What will you do when it’s

3200 dead American soldiers is “light military casualties.” Are you sure
you’re American? You don’t appear to care much for our troops. Tell you
what: ask the families and friends of those 3200 soldiers if those were
“light military casualties.”

> heavy civillian casualties in the streets of major American cities? Where
> are you going to run to then?

If you really think that anyone short of China could actually stage a major
invasion of our country, then you’re insane. None of the terrorist
organizations could do so. None of the countries supporting terrorist
organizations could do so. You’re talking about an operation that would
require a massive naval force (unless they are all Canadian or Mexican),
air support (or our air force would blow the ships out of the water before
they got close to our shores) and millions of soldiers on the ground.

As for terrorist attacks like 9/11, there almost definitely will be more.
The current administration has done nothing to secure the homeland against
such attacks. If anything, we are even more vulnerable, since so many
National Guard and Reserve members are in Iraq right now.

Don’t fall for the Republican talking points: fighting in Iraq will NOT
keep the terrorists from attacking us here. Fighting over there actually
weakens our ability to respond to such an attack here. Unless we are very
lucky, we will get attacked again.

The question then will be: who do we blame? And why didn’t the government
protect us?

Don’t cower under your bed against the supposed terrorist hordes who would
stage an impossible invasion. Instead, stand up and demand that the current
administration work to improve homeland security. And get us out of Iraq,
where all that we are doing losing our troops and encouraging more and more
people to join the terrorist ranks.

—
Michael Fierro (aka Biffster) biffster@NOSPAM-REALLYgmail.com
http://aperfectworld.biffster.org Y!: miguelito_fierro AIM: mfierro1
—
“I am now telling the computer EXACTLY what he can do with a
lifetime supply of chocolate.” – “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory”

The fact that so many people are scared witless about scary Islamic fundamental terrorists just baffles me…