This is why we need better Education...
/George Bush, in a recent speech to a group of military personnel, compared the current fight in Iraq and Afgahnistan to World War II.
President Bush, in perhaps his starkest and most contentious depiction of the stakes in Iraq, characterized the war there as a battle over the fate of democracy, just like World War II, and suggested that the only alternative was a dangerous retreat that would embolden terrorists.
He likened the wars he launched in Afghanistan and Iraq to the war launched by President Franklin Roosevelt, and he suggested that those urging a withdrawal from Iraq were dishonoring the sacrifices made by U.S. sailors and soldiers in World War II.
"This is the choice we face: Do we return to the pre-September the 11th mind-set of isolation and retreat, or do we continue to take the fight to the enemy and support our allies in the broader Middle East?" Bush said, standing before a fog-bound harbor, the docked aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan only dimly visible through the mist.
Sorry, but that's 100% Grade A bullshit right there. This war has never been about protecting democracy, on either side. Terrorists aren't trying to attack our type of government, they're attacking US, as a culture, as a group. In addition, the US was already involved, to some degree with World War II prior to Pearl Harbor, by supplying materials and weapons to Britian and France a year and a half before we were ever attacked. I would also hardly characterize our Pre-September 11 mindset as one of isolation. And on a technical level, there are almost no comparisons. The enemies are not clear, the rules of engagement are different. Finally, World War Two was a war fought to stop the German, Italian and Japanese advances and territory grabbing. This war has nothing to do with gaining more territory. Hell, the terrorists don't even have a state to start with.
Bush is only using the modern appeal of World War II as a booster. People remember the second World War favorably here- it's a war of honor, nobility and is thought of as the last honorable fight that we really fought, especially after Korea and Vietnam. Quite frankly, I think that it's dishonorable to use the memory of World War II to try and boost this war.
The only comparison that I see is that we have American soldiers on a foreign war zone, where they are doing some good, but at what cost? While pulling out might encourage terrorists, what's the point in continuing a war that we will probably end up pulling out of in the future, AS IN VIETNAM?
Okay, that's my political rant for the time being.
