Thoughts for Election Day

I’ve almost quite reading the news paper over here because I am sick and tired of politicians and the news media telling everyone how terrible it is over here, how the administration is on the brink of losing this war all the while you offer up no real solutions. You say you have them but you never tell us what they are. If the only plan you can muster is firing Mr. Rumsfeld come up with a new plan because President Bush isn’t going to. The only other plan I have heard is that if and when the Democrats take back control of Congress they are no longer going to fund the war. Hey that makes sense; punish the troops by not giving them the funding they need to fight the war. That sure will teach President Bush. Then more of those people who “didn’t study hard” that are “stuck in Iraq” will die. Is that really your plan? This war should not be a political hot button issue for the elections being held today back in the United States today. As I said before give us a solid no nonsense plan.
I would also like to expand on something things I think people fail to realize. Winning a war especially a war when the enemy does not wear a uniform and hides amongst civilians takes time to win. They cost money to pay people to get the job done. We soldiers are sacrificing time away from our families our friends, putting our careers on hold. It is the soldier not the politician that is the one who dies over here so don’t you dare sit back there in comfy chair and pretend you care. If you did, you would encourage your children to enlist and help not threaten to cut funding and putting the soldiers over here at greater risk.
The thing some people fail to realize is that we are rebuilding a nation and that too takes time, money, and other resources. That is what we are doing right now, trying to help the Iraqis rebuild their nation from the ground up. We are assisting them in rebuilding their government, their army and police forces, their economy, their infrastructure, bridges, roads, schools, hospitals, the list goes on and on. No nations, including Iraq, or Babylon as it was known thousands of years ago, has ever been good at nation building. Most of the time a nation was conquered, its spoils carried off by the victor and its defeated people were either carried off into slavery or killed on the spot. Times have changed and we are in a tough spot right now. Right now we have about 140,000 troops here in Iraq. Do we need more troops? Maybe, but what we really need is a solid plan on how we are going to assist this nation rebuild its self and a willingness to let the soldiers finish the job we started. It doesn’t matter if you think this war is legitimate or not, the fact is we are here now. We must finish what we started, we soldiers know how we can win this war, so stop arguing give us a plan and we will execute it. That’s what we do, complete the mission we are tasked to do.