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John Ruckman of Lakewood writes:

Finally, it appears that the congress is going to begin to put some teeth into their very sensible desire to change the coarse of events in Iraq.
Their surtax on all Americans to actually pay as we go for the Iraq war is the first thing I have seen by either party that will stop the huge drain of tax money for the war and stop the huge debt we are building for our children. It should be supported by all of us, if we are really dedicated to supporting our troops while not bankrupting our heirs and the country in general. I believe this is the first long term war where this country has not had some sort of special tax to pay the bills and it is only logical that all of us should help pay the price of this never ending and questionable conflict. So far, the only people paying any price has been the troops and their families, while many upper income families have actually gained net income. Not logical.
Also, the house committee handling the Iraq war supplemental request has determined that they will not report out any bill on this until next year—and then only if the administration puts forward a plan to change the coarse of the war including a plan to end it. This thing will never end if no controls are put in place. It is far past time for us to put the pressure on Iraq, in the form of ultimatums for them taking control of their own destiny. The U.S. stake in Iraq is limited at most and there is no reason for us to put more huge sums of tax money in there with no commensurable return.
We should be spending our war taxes in Afghanistan and on the pakistan border areas if we truly want to reduce terrorism. Even if we stay in Iraq for decades it will not effect terrorism enough to matter.
This war has been more mishandled by the administration than any I can remember, other than maybe the Vietnam war.

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

John you need to understand that the cons in this country don't want to end this war. In fact they are itching to get an other one started with Iran. They are the warmonger party. If you even start to mention peace you will be labeled a dirty liberal that hates America. As for passing the cost on to our children they could care less. As long as Haliburton and all their other big businesses get rich off of it that is all that matters to them.

While we're at it let's stick our collective heads back in the sand, go back to that magical time when all the world loved us.

Back when North Korea was building nuclear facilities while tell the world they weren't.
Back when Sadam was playing cat and mouse with the nuclear inspector's. And taking in cash by the truck load along with several United Nations officials via "oil for food". And the Clinton CIA was convinced he had and was making WMD.
Back when Arafat was taking peace while sending Palestinian youth to blow themselves up. And Sadam was paying $25K to their families.
Back when US troops were being blown up on the US Cole, in Somolia, Khobar towers, and the US Embassy in Kenya.

Oh they were so peaceful. All the world loved us then, because we just sat back and took it.

Yeah let's go back to such happier times.

you are so right john hillbillary is right there to get the hell out sometime after 2013 maybe if she doesnt attach iran as she has said more than once.
larry you are still such a moron and a real shame that your mother didnt believe in abortion to raise you on.

If I remember correctly we were being "peaceful" when someone took our planes and flew them into a bunch of buildings and killed our American Citizens..................

I think what the letter writer fails to grasp is that as long as the US exists we will be hated no matter how peaceful we are PERIOD.........

So John Ruckman thinks we should concentrate more on Afghanistan? Why, John? Just because that is where 9/11 originated? You forget, John, that it wasn't Osama who tried to assassinate Bush's daddy.

"John you need to understand that the cons in this country don't want to end this war. In fact they are itching to get an other one started with Iran. They are the warmonger party. If you even start to mention peace you will be labeled a dirty liberal that hates America. As for passing the cost on to our children they could care less. As long as Haliburton and all their other big businesses get rich off of it that is all that matters to them."

How droll. I mean, most of those Democrats, aren't in bed with the Republicans, most of them aren't super-rich folk who are in bed with big businesses, most of them really have the "people's interests" at heart. That's some great critical thinking larry, why aren't you running?

john,you are another un-informed liberal dumb-ass.

Drew,

If you think that “most of those Democrats, aren't in bed with the Republicans, most of them aren't super-rich folk who are in bed with big businesses, most of them really have the "people's interests" at heart” then you haven’t looked critically at those Democrats. Look at the wealth of John Edwards, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, John Kerry, or Ted Kennedy, just to name a handful. I realize that you used the word “most” when referring to Democrats. But the ones I mentioned are the most influential Democrats in politics today.

The top nine individual contributors gave exclusively to Democrats in the last election cycle. Overall, from the top12 individual donors in the 2002 campaign, Democrats enjoyed nearly $35 million in contributions compared to less than $1 million for Republicans. Similarly, since 1998, Bill Gates, the richest man in America, has contributed three times more money to Democrats than to Republicans. Warren Buffett and Paul Allen, America's 2nd and 3rd richest men, respectively, donate overwhelmingly to the left -- for instance, Allen has given over $150,000 to Democrats and no reported gifts to the GOP over the last three election cycles. Multibillionaire George Soros reportedly pledged $15 million to MoveOn.org to defeat President Bush in 2004.

Here in Colorado Democrats are connected with Tim Gill, Pat Stryker, Jared Polis, and Rutt Bridges, four of the wealthiest citizens of this state. They worked closely together to help fund the Democrat politicians to gain control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in decades.

Ref C allowed the state of Colorado to spend several billion dollars that would otherwise have been returned to taxpayers. Rutt Bridges was instrumental in bringing financial support to Democrats who favored the passing of Ref C.

People, you can argue to the cows come home about the necessity of our global military and economic empire, but to suggest that we were "sitting back and taking it" or even that we are a peaceful nation that supports freedom and the right to self determination is simply ignorant of the facts.

We have over 700 military bases in at least 130 countries, and we have a long history of propping up corrupt and ruthless dictators when it suits us. As I said above, you can make a case that our empire is necessary to support our way of live, but its long past time we quit pretending that people around the world hate us for our freedoms.

Heather I've seen any number of wingnuts make that claim. Tell me then why countries at least as "free" as ours- I'm thinking particularly of the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and several more western European countries which enjoy the same degree of political freedom and may have cultures at least as offensive to the fundamentalist Muslim as ours, but yet they've no been attacked, nor do they seem to be "hated". Why is that?

War is good for the economy. Sure there may be casualties but they volunteered.

"Tell me then why countries at least as "free" as ours- I'm thinking particularly of the Scandinavian countries,"

Are you talking about the Scandinavian countries in northern Europe, the one's that have some of the highest taxes in the world? Do you mean individual freedoms, or state freedoms, because individuals aren't free to spend taxes however they wish, the state does. I guess someone who conceives of themselves as Zeus doesn't need to think or use common definitions, since they're already omniscient.

What people like Drew fail to understand is that those countries with high taxes voted for those high taxes. It's called freedom. If Drew were right that a country that charges taxes is a country without freedom, then there is not a single free country in the world and never has been.

Heather says: "as long as the US exists we will be hated no matter how peaceful we are PERIOD...."

Yes, there will probably always be someone who hates us. In fact, there will probably never be any country which is not hated by someone.

To ignore the attitude of other people toward our country is absolutely stupid. Wouldn't it be nice if the bill for Iraq were being shared in much larger measure by some other countries? Being hated by, say, the Iranian government is quite different from being hated by a whole host of democratic countries.

There will always be isolationists like Heather, though their numbers will surely drop as they begin to realize that the world is getting smaller, that what other people think of us is vitally important to our own welfare.

"Sure there may be casualties but they volunteered."

There's that compassionate conservatism they brag about so much. Have a death wish? Join the Army!

Hans Christian Brando,

I think the person was actually a liberal being sarcastic toward conservatives, as if those are sentences which are mantras of the right. The use of the name "Neo Con" is a dead give away to the agenda behind the post.

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