This blog comes to you from West Michigan, home of the ultra-conservative Dutch Reformed and other equally conservative protestant faiths. Religion here defines the population, at least on Sundays and Wednesdays. Outside of church, its a different matter. Hate, prejudice, political intolerance and moral poverty exists. Many here consider self righteousness a virtue. And unfortunately, like the national trend, the populace is politically polarized.
I have been a political junkie for many years and helped in many Republican and Democratic campaigns. As I've gotten older, I've taken a more centrist position and now consider myself an independent with Libertarian leanings. I support smaller more efficient government, accountability in our political leaders, fewer and lower taxes, fewer new laws, and more. I always try to vote the candidate, not the party. Still, my vote tends to be Democratic.
The point is, I think those at the extremes of either party, do the country a disservice. The Libbies seem to desire a tax free and lawless America while the platform of the GOP would have us all pray together under one Christian faith (as defined by them) then go screw your neighbor (local or international) to get as much as you can as fast as you can. The Dems, well, have not had a coherent plan in my lifetime. Perhaps that is the price the Dems must pay for being the "all inclusive" group, but I think they lost sight of the differences between empathy and enablement.
What I hope to bring to this blog, aside from jabbing at hypocritical politicians and their misdirected policies, is to bring a sense of balance to the heated rhetoric over the Iraq war. The Michigan Patriot blog name is not to suggest I am more patriotic than others, though radical talk show hosts paint me as such, but the name is derived from the Patriot Missile System used to form a protective shield against attack. I hope some of my postings here will shield us from non-sensical arguments, repeated lies now repeated as truth, and more.
With this introduction, I must state that I opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, but once committed, wanted 300,000 troops there to secure the country. I was amazed at the poor decisions that were made that now haunt us as a nation and our troops. Ignored weapons cache, firing of nearly every Iraqi holding public positions thus driving their unemployment rate to over 80%, pulling special ops forces from the search for bin Laden to look for Saddam, and so many more. George Sr. left the Kurds to deal with Saddam after the first Gulf War. Saddam then proceeded to massacre them using weaponry. I'm worried that a pullout would allow the same to happen but on a larger scale since the circumstances have reverted into a civil war.
Now, I am at a loss to a solution. I shall discuss the options in more detail over time.
