statueman's Blog

I'm sorry... I wish there had been a better way.  I wish we had an army of peace... an army of 10% under arms and 90% under humanitarian supply that we could have sent into Iraq and Afghanistan.  But we don’t have such an Army.  We have a military with hi-tech weaponry and youthful Americans who volunteer to serve this country for any number of reasons.  And we have President who got congress to support a move that many have re-considered as a mistake.  I don’t think it was... I don’t think any American service member has died in Iraq in vain.  I don’t think that any American service member that is now serving in Iraq is serving there in vain.  But I do think we’re making one very huge blunder…

As I watch the History Channel sometimes (I called it the Hitler Channel when it first came out) I’ve been very entertained by a show they produce called “Great Blunders in History”.  Now if I look back at the time where Saddam Hussein was thumbing his nose at United Nations inspections and re-write history without an invasion by US Forces I cannot help but think that we’d possibly be in much worse shape than we are right now.  It is possible that our resolve to help maintain stability in the Middle East while at the same time combating terrorist organizations toe to toe, boot to boot would have been seriously in question.  It seemed to me at the time that Saddam Hussein had beaten off the whole world and it would be business as usual until the day he died.  I couldn’t bear the thought of it at the time… how far was he from forming alliances and propelling yet another war with Israel and greatly effecting world trade and oil prices.  It didn’t seem to far fetched to me…

It was time to roll… we knew it… and we did.  Because we elected a recovering alcoholic nut for President who had the guts, the foresight and the will to let the world know that when it comes to terrorism… we mean business.  For my part though… I think we are making one huge blunder…

We as Americans of the United States need to establish a “Say and Do” foreign policy.  We need to tell Mexico that there will be no more illegal immigration coming out of their country into ours.   After an agreed upon period of time we should draft an Army… maybe one made up of all those illegal immigrants already here and we need to go to war over the blatant disregard for our border.  How many more deaths and kidnappings and illicit drug trading do we need to put up with?  How about a 5 year war using an Army instead of a 50 year police action using an agency?

For my part I think that this “Say and Do” foreign policy need’s to be enacted and ran like a war… funding it by the spoils of war and not just by taxation.   When violence is done to our nation then we can talk to the nation who is at fault after we have conquered that nation in a war.  We can enact diplomatic solutions that will benefit both nations after that we have killed and/or imprisoned those perpetuating the problems that require those diplomatic solutions.

Now… our huge blunder wasn’t going to war in Iraq and occupying their nation.  Since we disbanded the Iraqi Army one blunder is not putting enough American troops in the region to let Iran know that we mean business.   By now we should be amassing troops along the border of Iran.  Didn’t we all put nations arming and sending off terrorist to do their thing on notice?   Shouldn’t we be putting Iran on notice?

No… our great blunder is not in going to war in 2004.  Our great blunder is in not having one very large exit strategy that we enacted with a timetable announced as soon as the war was won.  We can only offer the potential for Individual peace and freedom in a nation… because truly-truly that is all we really have here in this country.  We should have a clear objective and clear statement that we as the American people make to the Middle East nations and indeed all the worlds nations.  We need to make a new Constitution that addresses foreign policy issues.  Not a constitutional amendment but a clear Constitution between the American People and the World on what will get a nation in serious trouble with us.   And what we will do after we invade and as we are pulling out.  Yes, it’s time we let the world know what parts of our constitution we will require of nations who want to have dealings with us in a simple… short… concise document that speaks to the next 100 years of American "Say and Do" Foreign Policy.