MISSION JUST BEGUN

iraq will be a democratic nation and will be a model for other countries in the "Global Democratic Revolution"!

Last week, in the midst of the worst attacks on coalition forces since the war began, president bush was questioned by reporters about the 'mission accomplished' banner that was on the deck of the ship he made the speech from stating that the "major combat" was over. the president, backed up by the white house spokespeople, stated that neither had anything to do with the banner. the now infamous banner, was the idea of the commander of the warship, and it was a statement of the ships mission being accomplished and not a statement about the war. hard as it is to believe that the white house didnt call for that banner to be there, after this weeks major speech by the president calling for democracy in the middle east, its probably true. since now it is clear that iraq was only meant to be a so called beachfront stronghold in the ultimate quest for peace, freedom, & democracy in the entire middle east region. so clearly, president bush could not have thought or wanted to project that the mission was accomplished. far from it.

currently, the only free and democratic country in the middle east is israel. and being that israel is not a very big place, i'd say its fair to say that the middle east has no democratic governments. monarchies with radical islamic support systems, dating back much further than our wonderful democracy, and further bolstered by the developed world governments in order to keep the oil flowing, is what the order and rule is in the region. the populations are not represented by the leadership and the wealth is disproportionately distributed. power is tightly held by the kings and they control the wealth and the oil.

now far be it from me to stand in the way of a good plan, but it seems to me that president bush needs to think long and hard about what he is about to do, or has already started to do, in order to bring democracy to the middle east. if i'm not mistaken, this has been tried before, and it didnt end pretty. i am young enough, or for that matter old enough to remember beirut and the news reports about the bombing of the marine barracks. as i remember it, we were there to help facilitate the peace process in the middle east, yet we were not very welcome and ultimately withdrew our troops. president bush feels much more confident and committed in our efforts this time and is telling the world that our mission is vital to the safety and security of the U.S. and world peace.

here is the link to the speech...it is worth reading as it may be important to the future of the U.S. and the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/06/politics/06TEXT-BUSH.html

i agree that our efforts to democratize the middle east are vital to the safety and security to the U.S., yet i disagree that a military solution will be successful, especially if led by the U.S.

have a grateful day!

larry