The Reality of this war.

I think with the reality of war, we sort of become numb to the incidents we hear of beheadings and bombings. We think they are horrible, but it is away from us.... distant, in a land we never knew and will never know. Americans live in a prosperous free nation of relative safety. Aside from the brutality of war I want you to imagine for a moment this: You are driving through your town and a up head you see men with machine guns and grenades. They point their guns at you to stop. Imagine your fear, your stunned disbelief. Then when you stop they demand you give them your "evil" music CD's. Doesn't matter if its classical or hard rock, just hand it over. Then they give you a CD of scripture from the Bible and send you on your merry way. And there is no police to call. No charges to be filed. If your gonna live, your gonna be Christian. Period. Its impossible to imagine, isn't it? But that is exactly what is happening in Fallujah now, except of course it is recitations from the Quran, not the Bible. And it is Muslim you must be to live. Unlike Christianity these men don't feel that Islam needs to be freely chosen. This is the reality of what the terrorists want for the U.S. Make no mistake about it. The killings are their way of terrorizing us into submission. But luckily they underestimate us and our military. You see, they don't know us either.
The good news is that American forces bombed a hide out of the terrorist leader Abdu Masab Al-Zarwi Tuesday in Fallujah. American's frequent strikes have taken its toll on the leader's terrorist group. Read about it and what I just described in the AP story.
It seems to me that it was a mistake to leave Fallujah when we did. I know President Bush thought it was too dangerous at the time and wanted to train Iraqi forces. I am not a military strategist, so I don't know. Its easy for us to sit in front of our computers and say "bomb the hell out of them." Its all too different a story to have the information and decide if the risk is worth it.
The Prime minister of Iraq Allawi says elections will move forward in January. Others doubt that Iraq can be secure enough by then. I don't know either. But I do know that the terrorists CANNOT dictate when the elections are held. The government cannot allow these evil men's hate, violence and brutality to override free elections.
President Bush said yesterday that we will stand with the Iraq govt. Strategy "to surround and isolate enemy militias, reach out to the local population and negotiate from a position of strength."
This is a terrible place, a terrible time. Lets help them move forward to freedom. For too many years we have allowed that distant land to fester and ooze its infected hate. Maybe you don't agree that Iraq was the place to go after Afghanistan, but there is no doubt the terrorists are there NOW. They didn't just become terrorists when we went into Iraq. They were and are and will continue to be if we don't stop them.
And we must stop them.

"If you want a wrap up of the good news out of Iraq, and there is alot, check out Chrenkoff. It is excellent. He says " There are two Iraqs at the moment; both equally real and consequential. The Iraq of never ending strife- the insurgency, terrorism, crime, and all too slow pace of recronstuction makes for interesting news stories and exciting footage. The Iraq of steady recovery, returning normalcy and a dash of hope rarely does." Hat tip to Mudville.