Toned Down and Reserved Lefty Musings

A few years ago I found myself absolutely absorbed with politics, the 2004 election, the Iraq War, and anything related to these topics. It's no secret that I'm a bit of a lefty in my political beliefs, but I realized that how I defined myself politically came to be who I was to the outside world. Some people are proud of the fact that they are die hard Republicans or Democrats, and I can understand the feelings they have about their positions. But after John Kerry [somehow] lost the 2004 election, I shut down for a long while, and months later, emerged a bit wiser and more mature in how I handled and expressed my political beliefs.

I still believe I was right in voting for Kerry at the time, and given W's approval ratings currently, I'm sure many people wish they hadn't voted for W the second time around, or at least had someone else to choose from. Let's be honest, neither man was the BEST man to lead this country. But while W ranks among the lower primates in governing efficiently, honestly, truthfully and according to his party's principles, at least Kerry was among the people who ranked among humans.

And it's not that I don't like W because he's a Republican. It's because he's divisive, secretive, foolish, immature and acts like a 12 year old spoiled rich kid who always gets what he wants - which is probably exactly what he was like when he was 12. More than that it's because of this war. Our maybe more appropriately, his own personal vendetta.

If you still believe the war in Iraq was a good idea, I still respect you as a person, but please please please wake up. There is too much evidence out there that all points to the same conclusion - that war was not inevitable, it could have been avoided, and there was no legitimate reason to go to war besides the fact that W and his neo-con buddies had an agenda. Even if you supported his actions going to war, virtually no one believes the way the war was handled is something to brag about.

Ok, enough lefty musings.

Two of my cousins, Corporal Matthew Currao - 3rd Battalion 5th Marines Weapons Company, and Lance Corporal Thomas Niemczyk - 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines India Company Weapons Platoon, are serving with the Marines, and another cousin of mine, Private Daniel O'Connor - 184 Military Intelligence Co. is serving in the Army. All of them signed up after the war had been going on, but all joined for different reasons.


Matt and Tommy have both completed one tour of duty in Iraq, and both are scheduled to go back in July. Just about the same time I am heading out for Africa. Matt is now a Vehicle Commander - meaning he will be in charge of all the men in his Humvee when they go out on patrol, diffusing IED's by day and nite. Tommy is a Mortarman - shooting off rockets from wherever he is, and lugging around 150 lbs of heavy machinery wherever he goes. Danny has not been to Iraq yet, but will most likely be scheduled to leave early next year, unless we start phasing down the US presence there.

The war is more than just a concept to me and my family, and this is as it should be. War should never be thought of as a concept. It should always be grounded in reality. Though there are thousands of our brothers and sisters serving in the military throughout the world, we are not all invested in war equally. Some of us will feel the loss if our brothers and sisters don't come back, some can only sympathize, but the tragedy in all of this is that some of us will not lose a wink of sleep over it. I don't want you to think that I believe everyone should have a family member involved in the war. Quite the opposite. I believe that NO ONE should have a family member involved in this war.

Tommy and Matt both do not mind being asked to go back to Iraq and serve their 8 months tours of duty. I'm sure they would go back as many times as they were asked if it came down to that. But that doesn't mean that we should ask them and every other member of the military to do so. Not in this war. Not with this "leadership".

War is viewed primarily as a national security issue, and not as a moral issue. War should always be viewed as a moral issue. One source says there have been over half a million Iraqi civilian deaths, and another, less than 100,000. You could probably find any number you wanted. The tragedy is three fold here.

1- The death toll may actually be over 650,00 civilians
2- No one cared enough to keep an accurate account of how many Iraqi civilians have been killed
3- When civilans are killed by US military operations they are not labeled as "innocent civilians killed" but rather they are labeled as "collateral damage".

This is a moral issue. It is a much more important and pressing moral issue than gay marriage. The difference being real people both American and non-American being killed everyday versus two people getting married and making homophobic people extremely uncomfortable, but otherwise, not causing any deaths that I know of.

I apologize for this being a political entry. There won't be too many of these. Sometimes there's too much going on to not say anything, and this is as good a forum (both private and public) that I have at the moment to say what's on my mind and not have to worry about being very centrist in my comments.

I didn't anticipate going down this road when I started this either. My next entry will more appropriately address what I was intending to get at. But at least this served as a starting block for you to understand how I feel (to a limited extent) about some issues.

That's all for now.