Mrs. Shehan was given every opportunity to clarify her position by Chris Matthews recently, when she stated to him on Hardball that the United States had no business invading-not Iraq, mind you, but, get this-Afghanistan. Well, she made her position all too clear. We should have gone after Bin Laden, she conceded, but we should not have madfe war on "the Afghan people". So there you have it, as plain as day. Now let me make it clear, as clear as is possible. I disagree strongly with people that say we should get out of Iraq, now. I disagree, but I respect their viewpoint. After all,I do agree that we were manipulated into the war. I also concede that the war has been terribly mismnanaged, and has turned into a travesty. I even go so far as to say that Bush should be impeached beaue ofthese two factors. Incidentally, I also beleive he shoud be impeached for explodfing the defict while stubbornly refusing to fund the war by taxing the wealthiest Americans at an appropriate rate. And forthat matter, I believe he should be impeached for allowing the border situation in our own country to get so dangerously out of control, which is a situatuion he could easily remedy. This is not about George W. Bush. I think he is a danger to his own country, and is probably crazy, with messianic notions of himself. But one fact does not justify or excuse others.
While I can repsect Mrs. Sheehans position on Iraq, while strongly disagreeing with her insistence we immediately withdraw, Afghanistan is a different matter. The Taliban who ruled Afghanistan had not only given sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden and Al-Queda, they gave them assistance and permission to conduct their heinous terrorist training camps. And after 9/11, they stubbornly refused to hand Bin Laden over. They were his friends, his sponsors, his allies. It was all too clear. We gave them a month to reconsider. They did not budge from their position. In this instance, Bush was right. In fact, he was not only right, he had an obligation to act in exactly the manner he did. Anything else would have been treasonous. Okay, he failed to capture Bin laden. True, he messed up, and now there are problems in Afghanistan that are a result mainly of our actions. But that is beside the point. We had no choice but to invade the country, and we have no choice now but to stay there until the government there, too, is secure. There are failures and set-backs in every war effort. But the consequences of not seeing it through would be considerably worse. Had we not gone into Afghanistan, and dislodged that evil, vicous regime in the manner we did, I shudder to think of the consequences. Now, the Taliban is out of power. Al-Aqueda is on the run. of course they are fighting back. This is to be expected.
But for Cindy Shehan, or anyone, to suggest America didn't have the right to invade Afghanistan, in the wake of 9/11, can mean only one of three things. They are either fools; or they are cowards; or they are, quite frankly, traitors. I'll leave it to Cindy Sheehan to decide which one of the three best apply to her.
I do find it possibly quite telling that she places no blame on the Iraqi terrorists for the death of her son, in Iraq. According to her,the people who killed her son were Shi'ite militia who simply wanted him, and all Americans, out of their country. Interesting. Especially when you consider that were we to pull out of Iraq, the entire country might quickly descend into the chaos of civil war, which would very likely result in a blood bath of massive proportions. Maybe on some subconscous level, this is what she would like to see transpire. Think about it.
