Iraq

While I know that many Americans put Iraq as the most important aspect of picking the next President I do not understand this. First of all it will take quite some time to get the equipment out of Iraq. Then they will probably still be in Afghanistan. This is something that the media makes out to be horrific. To this point about the same amount of Americans died in 9/11 as have so far in this war. To compare it to Vietnam is not a good comparison. Some 40,000 to 50,000 Americans died over there. While I was not in complete favor of going to Iraq I was not against it and to this day still remain neutral on the subject. I do believe that this is our war. Another big difference with Vietnam is that it wasn't our war. We were there to help the French and when they pulled out we should have too. We went into Iraq.

Why did we enter Iraq? This is where Americans love of polls comes in. Some 80% of the people polled wanted us to go to Iraq. Hmm, where are these people now. We forced the war because it was a very popular approach at the time. Now we see our mistake. I do know there were no WMD's found, but at the same time if they didn't have any why were they not allowing the inspectors to go in and look freely. They made it look like they had them to the Germans, Americans, British, and even Spaniards.

As Americans we need to be cautious how we listen to the media. They put their own spin on everything. Some make it more liberal while others are extra conservative. To base our opinions on what we hear on the news and read from media outlets can cause some major problems. They allow a large majority to see things one way and then when polled for public opinion people just spout out what they hear and what they think everyone else feels. It is kinda like political endorsements. Why should I care what some Iowan state senator thinks about who should be the next President. The big thing is the Politicians feel that people only want to back a winner. So these endorsements are big news. Not to me. I want to think for myself.