Well, we all heard the news about the tens of thousands of people protesting the Bush 21,000 man troop surge in Iraq. It was also a protest of the Iraq War as a whole. So, to get into context with the title of this post, why do I feel this is healthy for our image abroad?

Well, I think it is good for Bush to look like a man who has abandoned his people. He really has. The 2006 midterm elections seemed to be quite promising for us on the moderate left. We were ready to work with the other side of the isle and hoped they would finally be humbled enough to realize their supermajority was over. For a while, it seemed like the Republicans in congress were being reasonable and I still think a lot of them are. But, we can’t forget the White House.

President Bush has alienated not only his country but the whole world (the whole world a long time ago). He is a man at war alone with his neoconservative cronies in expensive SUV’s and heated offices while our troops are over there moderating a civil war between insurgents. President Bush speaks of the great sacrifice these men will make, but what sacrifice? A sacrifice for Bush and his neoconservative oil thirsty friends to maintain and enhance their wealthy status quo?

If we really wanted to take on this humantarian foreign policy of liberating people, then why didn’t we invade some country in Africa?

So, these are the same old talking points and I am restating again. But the larger point is these protests are healthy for America. People abroad do watch what happens in our country. They are seeing the people are not behind this dangerous and careless foreign policy. They are seeing that even Republicans in power are against what Bush is doing.

The way the White House and its advocates react toward people in Congress speaking their minds is the most condescending and ridiculous thing ever. If anyone in Congress speaks out against the war they say these people “undermine the War on Terror and embolden the enemy.” So, what are we doing? Establishing Democracy abroad to undermine our own? So, our own right to free speech is now patronized so that Bush and his buddies in the White House look good?

It reminds me of when I was a kid and we’d go out with our parents to some nice dinner or something and our parents would say “well act good” so our family could look perfect. It was such a humbling feeling that made you feel so childish and young. Basically, Bush’s White House tries to make its dissenters look childish and disruptive.

Well, it certainly is not free speech in our own country hurting us in the war, it is the irresponsibility of this administration hurting us. It is not our free speech and protesting hurting our image abroad. Instead, it is helping our people be distanced from the dangerous and irresponsible foreign policy decisions of the Bush administration that compromised and damaged our image abroad. If we as the people show we are united against these terrible decisions by the White House, it is our only hope of showing the rest of the world we are not out of touch. We know this is not the right direction for our country. We love our country and know it is not good for it. The White House and President Bush have turned against the will of the people expressed in the 2006 elections. So I feel we aren’t emboldening anyone by turning away from them. They emboldened the enemy initially by invading Iraq. So, the dissent of this war can’t embolden anyone more than they already have.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.