Confusion on the War in Iraq

For the most part I just try to avoid politics all together. I usually vote mostly republican as I’m definitely for smaller government and am pro-life, but it’s fairly obvious that both parties lie and that there are good and bad people in both. Now with all the presidential chatter in the news I figured I should start figuring out who I want to support. Most of the issues I can go down the list and I have a fairly good idea where I stand but the War in Iraq leaves me scratching my head.

At the start of the war I thought it was necessary but as no weapons of mass destruction were found and it started to become clear that we were in a messy situation I changed my mind and started agreeing with people who said we shouldn’t have gone to war in the first place. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m convinced we should pull out now though. After all, we started this mess so it seems only fair that we should take some responsibility for it. Plus I think there is some truth to the fact that if we pull out, the Middle East becomes a bigger problem for our country to deal with then it already is. However, on the flip side of that if establishing a peaceful government there is not an attainable objective then we are basically just putting off the inevitable by remaining there not to mention costing lives and adding to our national debt. So for me the question comes down to, can we accomplish our mission there?

Getting a straight answer on this seems to be nearly impossible. The media has an agenda, the Republicans have an agenda and the Democrats have an agenda. Of course everyone is so passionate about their position that most discussions you can find on this topic make it totally impossible to separate fact from fiction. Hopefully as we get closer to Election Day I can get a better grasp for this complex situation though I don’t really see how. It would be great to get an unbiased report directly from the people making the decisions and those in Iraq but I doubt that is likely to happen.

Part of me thinks that with public opinion so against the war, the only logical reason for a presidential candidate to say he supports it is because it is truly in our nation’s best interest. One has to look deeper though as this could just be a front to create separation from the other candidates or to follow the company line. Still if someone is trying to sell themselves to the public, why take the less appealing position?

Up until now I’ve been happy to think (whether it’s true or not) that the people making the decisions know more about it then me, but now I along with the rest of America may be making the choice between staying or pulling out of Iraq. I don’t trust the politicians and now I don’t even know if I can trust myself.