Go Big Or Go Home

Oh, why hello there. How was your Christmas? And New Year's? That's good. Yeah, it was great for me too. I got a Zune and a rice cooker.

I'm just kidding, I'm not actually having a conversation.

So our Readership (her name is Michelle) brought it to my attention today that we haven't updated our blog in awhile. Which is true, I guess. This blog ostensibly deals with atheism and atheism related issues, but really, that quickly degenerates into a Liberal and a Conservative going 'Wauuugh nobody trusts usssss!' As great a blog as that would be, it's time for us to diversify.

Yes, you heard me right: Left Atheist Right Atheist is no longer a religion only blog. It now deals with the opinions of a nonreligious Conservative and a nonreligious Liberal on world events, so many of which are rooted in or complicated by religious faith. So then! Let's get started, shall we?

Oh Snap! It's Iraq Time!

So today President Bush made an announcement: He's sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq with no specific timetable for their withdrawal.

Only, it wasn't so much him that made the announcement as it was a chairman on the Senate Armed Services Committee, a gentleman by the name of Carl Levin. And he didn't even really announce it so much as he said he expects President Bush to make the announcement tomorrow.

For the purposes of the blog, we'll trust Carl Levin and assume that this is all the real deal.

I hate the War in Iraq, and I hate the fat, greedy, stupid, prejudiced men who blindly ignored all reason and got it started. Oh, and we can't forget the women, either (Condoleeza gets so pissy when she's left out, I swear). The entire war is a disgrace to our country and a reckless endangerment of our soldiers, and don't even get me started on what it's done to Iraq. Yes, we've deposed a ruthless dictator, but we've also deposed Law and Order.

That being said, I approve of the decision to send 20,000 more troops there. Woah, that's mind blowingly ker-azy, isn't it?

There's a saying, 'Go big or go home'. Interestingly enough, those are also our present options: Reinforce our troops and finish the job (Go big), or pack it in and leave it to the Iraqi government (Go home). We've had these choices for couple of years now - just the two of them, mind you - and so far the Bush Administration has been living by its own credo, 'Go big or go home or don't do anything at all, and fuck over the environment and gay rights while you're at it'. And yes, you damn bet they picked the third option, much to the consternation of trees, gay people, and the folks who have to contend with 115 degree weather and roadside bombs on a daily basis (the military).

We have about 132,000 troops in Iraq right now, which is not enough. Why do I, an 18 year old with no military experience, say that 132,000 isn't enough? I say that because we can't even control Baghdad, which is one of the strongest concentrations of the US forces in Iraq. If 132,000 troops are in the country and we can't even control the city where we're keeping our central base of operations, how the hell are we supposed to win? We're not doing anything especially beneficial when we can't even keep the streets safe at night. Yes, it's wonderful that we're building schools. Yes, it's wonderful that Saddam is out of power. But if you gave somebody a choice between a free, state of the art school and not having to contend with daily carbombings killing dozens (if not hundreds) of people, I'm pretty sure they're going to go with the latter option!

Long story short: We need the 20,000 extra troops so we can make Iraq secure. That way our troops are safer (larger force), the Iraqis are safer (more patrols), and we might actually make some progress (more boots on the ground gets things done faster). Kudos to the Bush Administration for making the decision. May they never be forgiven for taking so long to do it.


Article: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070109/D8MI1E480.html