Today marks year #5 of US war in Iraq

-Do you feel more secure if you live in the US?
-Do you believe our military is stronger and more capable than it was 5 years ago?
-Do you know that while the "surge" has "worked" to decrease the number of US soldiers and innocent Iraqis from being killed, the point of the "surge" has not worked because the point was to decrease violence so the Iraqi government could make progress toward peace through agreements and treaties. ALMOST NO PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE.
-Do you know that this lesser level of violence is expected, even by US military leaders, to be only temporary and without significant Iraqi governmental progress, will emerge again even more furiously, with even greater death and disability counts for US military and civilian workers as well as innocent Iraqis.
-Do you know how this unnecessary military action has dessimated our economy?
-Do you know that Saddam Hussein had *nothing* to do with 9/11?
-Do you know Saddam Hussein detested extremist Muslims and kept them out of Iraq or contained because they would challenge his authority?
-Do you know that, according to a poll widely reported, more than 60% of Iraqis believe it is OK to kill Americans?
-Do you know that Iraqis now consider Americans an occupying force, not a "liberating" force.
-Does it look like democracy is being practiced there now? That it will be any year soon?
-Do you know that more than 3,990 American soldiers have been killed in this Iraq war?
-Do you know that more than 25,000 American soldiers have been injured in a way that will leave them disabled in some way the rest of their lives?
-Do you believe that you were told the truth about the US invasion of Iraq?
---That US military would be greeted as heroes, liberators and saviors?
---That there were weapons of mass destruction there? (Um, unlike what the Bush administration has claimed, almost NO intelligence community - including the UN *and* the US's own National Intelligence Estimate - believed Saddam had WMD's, or that the US should invade Iraq - which is why almost no nations joined us in the "war" in any meaningful way, and why so many people despise the US government now)
---That the Iraqis would pay for the war with their oil money so we wouldn't have to foot the bill (we're going on 3 TRILLION dollars' debt from this war)
---That Iraqi oil would help reduce gas prices in the US
---Do you know how many innocent Iraqis have been killed and disabled because of our military action there?
---Do you know how many of our own soldiers have been killed and disabled with stolen American weapons (more than $10 million worth of American arms were stolen in the early days of the incursion because of lax security).
---Do you know how many of our own soldiers have been killed and disabled because they were poorly equipped, poorly armed, and poorly protected?
---Do you feel the sacrifices the military families have made are worth the Bush administration's policies?
---Do feel that it's fair that a bank gets bailed out immediately with $30 billion of our taxpayer money, but that millions of people are being evicted from their homes because of devious lending practices that came home to roost? The Bush policy: When ordinary people are victimized, it's because we're stupid and should have known better. When banks go under, it's because of something that was beyond their power. Actually, no. They got so full of themselves they went down as all those with an overdose of hubris ultimately do.
---Do you know that many of the issues, including ignorance from poor educations, we're facing today that are so extreme find their roots in poverty? Whether or not you are poor?

Charles Dickens wrote in A Christmas Carol that the two greatest enemies of humankind are ignorance and want (poverty). Of the two, ignorance is the most incindiary.

I hope voters take care to inform themselves this year and aren't swayed by the spin on either side.

I miss John and Elizabeth Edwards.