Go Army or Go Home Army By Mike Coughlin

The latest Iraq related news involves Sgt. Paul E. Cortez of Barstow, Calif., who pleaded guilty, along with several other soldiers, to raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdering her and her family. They then poured kerosene over her desecrated body and burned it to hide the evidence.

Is it any wonder that Iraqis hate America. Is it any wonder that we're failing miserably over there when this is how our soldiers spend their time. We claim that we're sending our troops over there to help them have better lives. Instead, "the best they could be" was to rape a young girl, kill her family, kill her and burn her body.

It makes me sick. Many people have spoken out either for or against the war. But many are still silent. It's time we all take a position. Sitting on the fence is no longer an option. Choose either "Go Army" or "Go Home, Army."
Would any American have ever agreed to sending our troops to Iraq simply to build a democracy?
Now, I don't pretend to know much about politics and what's going on in the Middle East, but when it comes to Iraq, I think of the old metaphor that a frog put in boiling water will instantly jump out; but a frog put in room temperature water that is slowly heated will boil to death because it does not perceive the change in temperature.

Scientifically, the metaphor is bullfrog shit. At a certain temperature the frog will always become uncomfortable before it boils.

But I digress. The point is, if it were true, it applies to Iraq. The whole invasion started to catch the terrorists -- we caught none. It turned into a hunt for weapons of mass destruction -- we found none. It became a Good Samaritan mission to free them from Saddam Hussein and create a democracy -- Hussein is dead, our soldiers are still dying, we have nothing close to democracy and the Iraqis are no better off.

Pretend for a moment that the first two reasons, terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, had never been an issue. Would any American have ever agreed to sending our troops to Iraq simply to build a democracy? I wouldn't. I hope you wouldn't either. Sure, democracy everywhere would be great, but that in no way gives us the right to impose it upon other nations. Sorry, Darth Vader, imperialism doesn't fly these days.

It's time to take a step back and look at the whole situation with fresh eyes. It isn't hard to realize that we've been led down a slippery slope. People criticize that it was done deliberately. Deliberately or accidentally, it doesn't matter. The fact remains, it's time to leave Iraq.

[Photo credit: Two US Army men in Baqubah, Iraq. http://www.flensburg-online.de/grafik/us-army-baqubah.jpg]