It Doesn’t Make Sense

I've been thinking about how Republicans in the Senate (including Joe Lieberman, who I have concluded is not the Independent Senator from Connecticut, but the Likud Senator from Israel), will not allow a vote on resolutions to withdraw American armed forces from Iraq, and they believe it’s the right thing to do.

Imagine, if you will, a war in which way more than half of the American public believes we were wrong to start and wrong to continue. How can Republican representatives continue to vote as if the opinions of their constituents don't matter?

My sense is that if a country goes to war, it’s because there is a real reason to do so (we are under threat and we have exhausted every other means to solve the problem), and everyone in the country gets behind it. Everyone contributes to the success of the enterprise because they know it’s in their and their country’s best interest. The fact is no one, no one has shown me why the U.S. should be in Iraq. It is clearly not something that is our best interest and in fact is making us more vulnerable to Islamic crazies, destroying the value of the U.S. dollar, and diverting resources from greatly needed constructive uses into waste and destruction. Where is the intelligence in this? How does this protect Americans?

The absurdity of being in this prolonged and fruitless debacle that was a war and is now an occupation and policing of Iraq is profound. Why do Republican Senators continue to believe it can possibly be good and appropriate for the U.S. to be engaged in this mess? I think if I was one of these people, I would be asking myself the hard question about why people don't support this war. Why don't they see it being good for the U.S. to do this?And if I couldn't come up with a good answer to that question, I would vote and campaign for us to get out of there as quickly as we can and never allow this to happen again.

—John Woods, July 18, 2007