180. A Long Awaited Day

September 10th is finally here, a day a lot of people have been waiting for, a point in time to catch up on all that's been happening despite the fact that everyone knows the battle was lost sometime ago.

And we're not writing about the summer's American Idol loser's long awaited eighteenth birthday - yes, Sanjaya Malakar, star of the Summer of Hair, turns 18 today. Would that today's wait was something so uncomplicated and trivial.

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Today is the day "in September" when President Bush's leader in his War in Iraq will report to the Congress and to us (or US) on where we are and where we need to be in Iraq. Very few people in the country think we need to be where we are. The latest CBS/New York Times poll from last week indicates 71% of all Americans do not approve of the president's handling of the War in Iraq. 59% say the removal of Saddam Hussein was not worth the cost in money and lives. 62% say it was a mistake to get involved. A total of 65% think we should either decrease our troops' volume or get out altogether. To that answer, the president, General David Petraeus, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, will today report that the surge raising the numbers of Americans troops in Iraq to 170,000 is working.

As President Bush has little legitimate military training and experience, and Ambassador Crocker, a seasoned and respected diplomat, like myself has none, I will attempt to give some credence to the report of General David Petraeus, whose military career began with his enrollment and graduation from the United States Military Academy, Class of 1974, when he at the age of 22 he entered the 509th Airborne Infantry Battalion at Vicenza, Italy. It would be easy for me as a Democrat with a bumber sticker on my truck reading Teach Peace to dismiss the general's report in toto even before he has made it. However, I've been taught to respect and appreciate the jobs and roles those in the military play, from the lowly Privates, Airmen Basic, and Seaman Recruits, up to the Admirals and Generals. Petraeus has climbed the ranks, along the way serving as a Lieutenant Colonel, commanding the 101st Airborne Division 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment from 1991-93 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Today he is a four-star general. He has an impressive resume, as for that matter, does Ambassador Ryan. Needless to say, the president's place among these three is a far-distant third.

On the other hand, it must be remembered that the president hired both of these men to carry out his policies. There have always been problems of governance between the departments of State and Defense, both between themselves and amongst all branches in the Executive. To bring the two of them together is obviously a push at seeing the overall plan for America's involvement in Iraq in as positive a light as is possible. As stellar as are the resumes of these two government officials, there isn't enough light to make this situation a positive one. To date, 3763 Americans have lost their lives, including twenty-one in this month alone. Another 27,186 casualties have been reported. These are all Defense Department figures. The deaths include Sgt. James Faulkner of Clarksville; Lance Corporal Thomas Echols of Shepherdsville; and, Sgt. James Faulkner, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Phelps, Staff Sgt. George Rentschler, Sgt. Michael Acklin II, Sgt. Darrin Potter, Sgt. David Wimberg, and Petty Offc. 3rd Class Jeffrey Weiner, all of Louisville. May their souls Rest In Peace.

Is there a way for the general and the ambassador to make the case for America to stay in Iraq? I am not smart enough to know the answer to this question. Neither are most of us who protest against the war and against those who support it. Notice I didn't say "is there a way for us to win" as at this point, I do not believe that is an option. But can a case be made for the continued occupation of Iraq by American soldiers? Are they engaged in a civil or religious war which is frankly none of our business? Or is it our business in that the religious aspects of it may roll over into the so-called War on Terrorism, the one we've called ourselves into that even the president has admitted may not end in one or two generations.

I am of the belief that the War on Terrorism is a separate affair from America's involvement in a civil and religious war within the State of Iraq. I believe it is time for America to leave. How that is done, I do not know. I am confident that George W. Bush will not have the opportunity to proclaim, as he arrogantly, contemptuously, and erroneously did aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 when he declared Mission Accomplished, an obvious photo-op in preparation for the next year's election. His actions that day were a mockery of the Americans lives lost due to his actions as president. The treasonous, treacherous, and tragic administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney has left the State of our Union in a precarious position.

We are at war, both with ourselves politically and with others around the planet. Historians have written about warring nations since the earliest of times, stories found in classic literature, within the chapters and verses of the Bible, and handed down orally, traditions from generation to generation. And the end result of many of those stories of war is nothing short of the beginnings of the end of those civilizations. We are at a point in our relatively short history of 231 years where the future of our Republic hangs in the balance. Will we be able to bridge the abyss created during the last thirty five or so years - which has dramatically widened under the 43rd best president in history. It is an abyss within between classes, cultures, and commuities and an abyss without, crossing not only the political limits of countries, but also the non-existant borders and limits which exist between peoples. These are artificial barriers which have been promulgated by this country and they must be altered or done away with entirely if we as a country are to live peacefully with other states, nations, and peoples on the planet we share as home.

Whoever the next president will be, he or she, and more and more I am feeling that it will be she, that person and their administration must be prepared to work to restore America to its place in the world and that task will be neither easy nor quick. George Bush has destroyed America as the City Shining of the Hill, the beacon of light and prosperity many of us love and cherish and yearn to yet be again.

The inauguration of the next president on January 20, 2009 can not arrive soon enough.