"That One" Right about Iraq

I watched the debate last night. Except for the time that McCain referred to Obama as “that one,” there wasn’t any really memorable event of the night.

Except when McCain said Obama “didn’t understand the Iraq war.”

Apparently, McCain used the same phrase in the last debate, except this time Obama was poised to pounce. On his turn to respond, Obama said something to the effect, “McCain is right, I don’t understand why we invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and didn’t have WMD.”

Zing.

Even before our economy tanked, I had decided to vote for Obama, mostly because of Iraq. It pisses me off that we invaded after being told Hussein helped the 9/11 terrorists, possessed WMD, and was imminently ready to strike the United States again. None of that was true. In fact, it wasn’t even close. Hussein had in fact shut down his WMD program years earlier. And it was later proved that Hussein’s association with Al Qaeda was tenuous at best and that he played no role in the 9/11 attack. How could our government not know these things? If they did know, they either didn’t tell Bush or they did tell the president and he ignored them. Or they just plain didn’t know which means my seven year old daughter is as good at intelligence gathering as they are.

Either scenario makes our government look like a bunch of amateur clowns.

So I decided long ago, even before the Democratic and Republican primaries, I want our country out of Iraq. We never should have invaded, we shouldn’t be there now. I want our army out. Now. Obama vows to do that, McCain promises to keep the troops there indefinitely. McCain, Bush, Cheney, they all promised that not only would the United States Army be greeted as liberators, Iraq’s oil revenues would fund the war effort. Iraq currently holds a $50 billion surplus in its banks, while the American taxpayer is paying a $10 billion monthly bill to keep troops in Iraq. Nothing they said about Iraq was true.

Let’s not forget that unlike Iraq, we’ve got a $10 trillion national debt, a $1 trillion deficit. We can’t afford to wage this war. We can’t continue funding a war rooted in false testimony, phony intel, and creative political maneuvering.

So “that one” has it right: pull out of Iraq, shift some troops back to Afganistan, hunt down (again) the Taliban and Bin Laden, and reconsolidate our military so that we can prepare for the next international challenge. And deploy our army when it really matters and based on solid information. If we invade one more country on false pretense, we deserve to be invaded ourselves.

You hear that Canada and Mexico? Swarm your armies to the borders, you’re going in!