Reasons to Go to War With Iraq

1. Install a Democracy in Iraq that will infect the rest of the Arab world. Democracy will eventually quiet terrorists who are born when they feel they have no power.

2. Saddam had WMD or planned on getting WMD in the future.

3. To ensure that Saddam did not have WMD and would not give WMD to any terrorist group. Why take Saddam's word for it when he used to have WMD, went to great lengths to hide it from the UN, has actually used WMD extensively, made us think he had WMD, and Saddam had ties to terrorist groups including Al Qaida.

4. Saddam supported terrorist groups including Al Qaida and suicide bombers in Palestine (although there is no clear evidence that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11).

5. Saddam thumbed his nose at the US for over 10 years. In order to ensure that rogue nations don't feel secure in the knowledge that the US can be bullied, we have to show the world the opposite. We have to project strength and that we will back up our words with deeds if necessary. The world is a dangerous place. If a nation thinks we won't go to war over an issue, that nation will feel it is in a much stronger bargaining position and may act more belligerent.

6. Saddam thumbed his nose at the UN for over 10 years. If the resolutions have no teeth, the resolutions aren't worth the paper they are written on.

7. Saddam committed crimes against humanity. He killed hundreds of thousands. He tortured. He oppressed.

8. Saddam fired on US and other air craft patrolling the no fly zone between the first and second gulf wars. This is an act of war in itself.

9. People were suffering under Saddam while Saddam got rich on the UN Oil for Food Program, the greatest scam in the history of the world.

10. To ensure Saddam does not cause any more wars.

11. To make the region more secure. Saddam was a belligerent fellow.

12. Yes, oil is important. It is either in, was manufactured using, or was transported using every product you own. But we did not go to war to ensure oil profits for Texans and Saudis. Letting Iraq stay isolated does that as less oil is exported from Iraq. Instead, letting the free flow of oil come out of Iraq ensures low prices for customers (in the long run) and ensures the American economy, which requires a lot of oil to function, will continue to grow.

Fahrenheit 9/11

I just saw Fahrenheit 9/11 for the first time. I vowed I would not see it until after the election.

Here is the plot in a nutshell. Before 9/11, Bush was a bad president. He won because his Daddy's friends packed the supreme court and not because the people wanted him. Before 9/11, he neglected the country and was on vacation more often than not at his ranch. Moore does not show the towers actually being hit or the towers coming down (I wonder why?). When the planes struck the towers, Bush did nothing for seven whole minutes and just read to the elementary school class where he was doing a photo op. Then, Bush protected the Bin Laden's brothers and sisters, because the Bin Ladens were friends of his. In fact, one of Bush's good friends was the guy who dealt with the Bin Laden's finances. Also, the Saudi govt was a great friend of the US. Therefore, even though most of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, Bush protected them and went after Afghanastan. Also, Bush decided to go into Afghanastan, not because there were terrorists there, but because he wanted to put a pipeline through it for Unocal. Then, he decided to get rid of our freedoms with the patriot act and, because no one in Congress read it, Moore was forced to drive around in an Ice Cream truck reading the act, but he doesn't tell us what is in it or how it affects our lives. Later, Moore decides to sign up the children of members of Congress for the all volunteer military. Later, Bush decided to go into Iraq and told us there were weapons of mass destruction there even though, before 9/11, he had said there were no wmd there. Also, war is hell and lots of people die in war including innocent people. Also, lots of soliers have changed their minds about the war and formerly conservative mothers, too (at least, one). Also, Flint Michigan looks a great deal like a war zone.

Also, the president and administration officials look really funny when they sit there getting make-up put on them.

Moreover, you can find all this information if you just go through hundreds of hours of tape showing the president and various administration officials talking for hundreds of hours and then edit it.

The movie tries to tackle too many issues without really going into anything in detail. It first starts out with the idea that Bush was in cahoots with Bin Laden, because he knew someone who did work with the Bin Laden family. Well, my wife used to work with a guy who helped blow up the two embassies in Africa in the 1990s, was a member of Al Qaida while she knew him, and who knew Osama Bin Laden himself. This guy, Ali Mohammed, was arrested for terrorism while he worked with my wife. So I say, so what? We are all six degrees of separation from everyone in the world.

And, of course, there is also the age old adage that any war in the middle east is a war for oil. This has always been merely innuendo as no one can point to any actual fact that shows that's why we went to war in the middle east. And Moore never goes beyond the innuendo.

In fact, the whole movie is all about innuendo and conspiracy theories. But, again, no facts are shown.

Moore thinks we went into Afghanistan for 2 reasons: To build a pipeline in Afghanistan for Unocal and to protect the Saudi Royal family. First of all, there was no pipeline on the table at Unocal in 2001. It had merely been discussed in the 1990s. Second, Al Qaida was based in Afghanistan. Why wouldn't we invade that country?

Moore tries to make many points about airline security, the actions of others such as Congress, and various White House policies and gives one rather conspiratorial view about all of them, but never takes into consideration other views that might explain why such policies were implemented. He just assumes there are either no other reasons or the other reasons aren't good ones. A case in point is his point that no Congressman actually read the Patriot Act. Of course, he never tells us that there might be good reasons why others read the laws that get passed and Congressmen only read summaries prepared by highly skilled staff members. Another case in point is this idea that the President and his administration purposely scared us into Iraq by giving us constant warnings about terror threats. He fails to tell you that the color coded system was actually suggested by a Democrat. Moreover, the administration felt it was under pressure to let people know about threats in advance and did not want to look like it was caught off guard. Also, 9/11 scared us. We assumed there would be other attacks. I never thought we would be free from attacks within our borders three years after 9/11. Moore never takes these other issues into questions.

He does make the point that the sons and daughters of the elite don't ever serve in the military, but his idea to try to get congressmen to "enlist" their own children is silly. I thought it was up to each individual to determine whether to go into the military or not. Each soldier, sailor, airmen, or marine is an adult who can make his or her own decisions. A parent cannot enlist their own children. Nevertheless, we have an all volunteer army. These guys know what they are in for when they join up. If you take the benefits, you might be sent to Iraq. I feel for the guys who go, but they knew what they were in for when they joined up. I understand Moore's point, but I fail to see what that has to do with whether to go into Iraq or not. Good war or bad, the individual soldier knows what he or she is in for.

When Moore tries to make his point about the Patriot act, I fail to understand it. He does not tells us what is in the Patriot Act or why it is good or bad. It just fails.

Moore does score points with his depictions of the horrors of war. In fact, his depictions are very moving and include civilian casualties, amputees, dead soldiers, and the story of the mother of a soldier who was killed. War is horrible. People die horribly. People are maimed horribly. People's lives are changed forever. A lot of innocent people are killed. But that has always happened in war and should be expected. One could say the same thing about World War II. We understand that war is horrible. The question is: Is this a good war to fight?

That is where Moore fails the most. He glosses over the intelligence failures. He doesn't mention anything about Saddam's crimes (or even that the US supported Saddam in the 1970s and 1980s). The real question is why did we go to war? There are a few scenes where people are wondering why we are in Iraq, but the issue is never truly discussed. Weapons of mass destruction are talked about in some very quick snippets of news footage, but a full discussion is never made.

If the administration went to Iraq with bad intelligence regarding WMD, then let's fix the intelligence. If the administration ignored the intelligence analysis of the CIA and decided to go to Iraq anyway, then we have a major problem. However, there is no evidence to suggest that the administration ignored CIA analysis. If Moore has some evidence, it doesn't make in into his movie. In my opinion, other than WMD, the administration did not give us any reasons why we should go to war. I can come up with several good reasons of my own, but Bush failed to tell the American people about these other reasons. That would produce some good discussions, but, to Moore, there are no other reasons and, even if there were, it would not matter, because Bush went to war to make his war industries and oil pals rich and that was it.

To Moore, Bush and all his cronies are maniacal crazy wannabe Hitlers who want nothing other than to make the rich richer, to make the poor poorer, and to poor people suffer. And to accomplish these goals, Bush has to lie constantly. Maybe I have rose colored glasses on, but I think that is ludicrous.

The best part is not part of the movie but is on the DVD. It is a small documentary about Arab American Comics. It was hilarious.

The movie is light on facts and evidence and heavy on conspiracy and innuendo. If you are predisposed to believe in conspiracy theories, you might find something in this movie. If you hate Bush, this is a movie for you. If you are a Republican, you might like it just to know what crap the left is listening to. If you are an independent who needs evidence before making up your mind, pass on this one. Moore obviously has a bias and doesn't let evidence stand in the way of achieving his aims. In my opinion, Moore does a disservice to the public. He has a chance to really undertake a hard look at these issues, but his tactics are not unlike those of the insurgents. He takes quick jabs at the enemy and never fights the enemy head on. He merely hopes that the enemy will die of 1000 small cuts. As such, Moore never faces any issue head on. The documentary is a total failure and will only hurt America and aid the terrorists.

Even NPR thinks there was no voter fraud

I was listening to NPR on 11/10/04, specifically All Things Considered. They did a story about the conspiracy theories that about regarding the presidential election. Pam Fesler, NPR Correspondent, had a conversation with Robert Siegal, NPR Senior Host. You can hear the story at the NPR site: http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=10-Nov-2004&prgId=2. The headline is Nader Raises Questions on Electronic Voting although they don't talk much about Nadar. Instead, they noted that bloggers were touting alleged evidence that there was fraud or at least mistakes were made, which caused Bush to win. But the main part of the story was to debunk the conspiracy theories. There may have been some mistakes, but NPR stated that most of the theories were based on mistaken evidence and the other problems were merely mistakes, which were negligible. They note there is no evidence that there were any irregularities significant enough to change the election.

Therefore, even NPR, admittedly a liberal media source, although one with some integrity, says the conspiracy theories are wrong. Let's move on. Shall we?

Exhaustion

I am exhausted from the recent election. The contension makes me so emotional tired. I really glad it turned out the way it did. I dared not to hope that it would turn out so well, but I have nothing more to say (no really).

People on the left: Deal with this. This is a democracy and we are tired of you putting judges on the bench who say the constitution says things that it doesn't really say. We are tired of you trying to say that gay marriage is the same as regular marriage (or that a gay relationship is the same as a regular relationship. [Is a relationship just about the type of sex you like?]) We are tired of you taking all our money to flitter it away on programs that do more harm than good and put more people into poverty (because taxes equal fewer jobs), just so you can feel good about yourselves. We are tired of your lies that an unborn child is merely a mass of tissue for the first two trimesters and that the baby miraculously becomes a human the day the third trimester begins. Life is life no matter how to slice it. We are tired of your delusion that socialism, command economies, and big government are the cure to the problems that allegedly plague us. Look, socialism and communism were proven to fail miserably. We are tired of your comments about how evil America is. America is the beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. America is the cure and not to problem. We are tired that your existential angst causes you to see so many problems in the world and to fight against the man only to become the man when the problems weren't really all that great in the first place and you haven't solved them with 100 years of socialism.

People on the right: Stay true to your belief in God, it is the only thing that lasts save love of family and country. Ignore the left. They defeat themselves. Live your life with ethics, honor, love, and morals and don't let moral relativism confuse you. While you should judge not lest ye be judged, their is right and wrong. America is a country based on God, morals, ethics, law, and individual rights. It is not a country based on Atheism, socialism, strange ideas, and particular sexual behavior. The lefties can talk about whatever they want to talk about and express themselves all they want, but we have the right to speak, too. They don't accept that. Speak anyway. Those on the left can have sex with whomever they want, but I merely wish they would not shove it in our face and suggest that they are heroic for doing it. They are not. Those of us on the right are not stupid or bigoted. We merely have moral beliefs. Don't believe what they say about you. Believe in yourselves and what is true. We believe in George W. Bush. We believe in our Country. We believe in our families. We believe their is evil in the world and we have the right to defend ourselves.

Thank God.

Secession?

When Clinton and the Democrats won in 1992, no one was talking about Seceding then. What's changed?

Can't we all get along with the idea that some people in red states have divergent ideas than those in blue states? Or is diversity a bad thing?

Can the government really control the economy?

Although there are those who believe that the economy can be controlled by the government, they fail to see that the economy is made up of individuals and the choices they make. Although governments have tried to command their economies and the such nations survived doing that, such a situation does not lead to economic strength.

Each individual choice has consequences for that individual and the economy at large. Moreover, individual decisions are not rational. For instance, during a run on a bank, the best thing for everyone concerned is for everyone to leave their money in the bank. If everyone takes out their money (note that a bank does not have unlimited funds or ever cash to cover the withdrawals of every single bank customers), the bank will fall and some depositors will lose all their money. However, if everyone leaves their money in the bank during bad times and only takes out what they need, the bank will be able to weather the bad times, the economy will stay solvent, and no one will lose their money. But a run is an extreme example of irrational behavior. Society would be better off if depositors did not take out all their money, but an individual feels that they would be better off if they took all their money out, because they can't trust that anyone else is going to keep their money in the bank. Each depositor does not want to be in the group of depositors that is going to lose their money.

Another example is price caps. When the government caps prices, shortages are created. Low prices are good for individual consumers, but some suppliers then determine that they cannot make a profit. As such, they make something else that they can make a profit on or they just decide not to make anything at all. Suddenly, it is hard for consumers to find the item for which prices are capped. A good example of this was seen in the Soviet Union, where it was hard to find consumer goods, because all prices are capped.

One can use propaganda to influence human behavior, but greed, selfishness, and the desire for food, shelter, and other needs are basic human traits, which cannot be overridden. Tastes can be overridden and influenced, but needs cannot. As the economy is the sum-total of the decisions of individuals, one cannot entirely legislate or control the economy, because one cannot ultimately control the decisions of individuals. One can only encourage certain behaviors, but if the behaviors one wants to encourage run counter to innate human behaviors or human needs, the encouragement will fail.

Republicans Won, But The Left Thinks It was Fraud

Republicans pulled this one off big time. It's so huge that the people on Air America (which I listen to to keep up with what the left are thinking about [although they don't really tell me anything]) are accusing the Bush administration and GOP of fraud in the election. I was told by one talk show host that she can believe that people and North and South Carolina went for Bush "because they vote with one hand lashed to a crucifix." But the Ohio and Florida votes must have been stolen, because the people there aren't religious like Bush and have lost all these jobs.I listen to Rush Limbaugh a lot and I'm trying to turn off my own bias to see if Rush's show is as partisan as the Air America folks. Rush certainly has the Bias, but all I hear from Air America is a bunch of slogans and anger. Rush actually says something and has evidence to back up what he says (although some of it has a terrible slant). Thus, I think the left is in a dream world.

Anyway, it was a tremendous victory. Not just the White House, but the Senate, too. I really wasn't expecting it.