Before watching Family Guy this evening I endured the Presidents address to the nation. Now I have declared before that I am not a fan of W., but I felt obliged to give him credit for the speech. I don't consider myself a "defeatist," and I didn't agree with the war in Iraq in the first place. One criticism of I had of the Bush administration has always been the constant evasion of culpability. Tonight I felt like even though he didn't account for all the mistakes he has made in office, and I believe there are many, he did express that he was aware of the consequences of the decisions he has made. If I were Dr. Phil, I'd give the old guy a big hug and tell him how much progress he made in his benediction this evening. I understand that once our country did commit to the affairs in Iraq, we could not very well just leave the vulnerable new governtment to the dangers that would inevitably exploit it. I was pleased that the President at least slightly articulated a plan to deescalate our involvement as the safety of the country was assessed. Maybe his vision of a democratic Middle East has it's pluses, but I never would agree to force feeding it on them. It needs to be their own choice. I do feel that we have begun a new "cold war." I am only referring to the cat and mouse games that the United States and the Soviet Union played with those countries that hadn't yet chosen the course of democracy nor communism. Only this time we lack a monolithic advesary such as the Soviet Union. This time we wage war against the countries' own ideologies. I sadly predict many more Viet Nams and Iraq at our doorstep. The only questions are who will be next and how long with the people of America sit idly by and condone our actions? The Republican takeover of Washington seemed inevitable with the impeachment trials of Bill Clinton. I am hoping that a democratic backlash will be the result of Bush's antics. We have to wait until 2008 though. Hopefully the democratic party can get their act together by then. I don't merely want a democrat, but an organized, intelligent individual who not only uses the support system around him/her but acknowledges mistakes and in turn takes responsibility for them.
