Wednesday June 29, 2005 Another speech

I try to keep an open mind about many things, but I fail to see the justification for invading and occupying Iraq. Last night President Bush kept tying our invasion of Iraq to the terrorist attacks of 2001. He failed to say anything about the weapons of mass destruction (which was supposedly the imminent reason for the invasion). Since Osama is from Saudi Arabia and most of the terrorists who flew the planes were Saudi Arabia, doesn't it make perfect sense that we retaliate by invading Iraq? Meanwhile, Osama has admitted that he planned and had the attacks carried out and we (being the most powerful nation on earth) haven't been able to catch him for almost 5 years now. We seem perfectly willing to spend the blood of our boys and the blood of innocent Iraqis for some unexplained reason. I want to know exactly why we felt the need to invade Iraq - was it for revenge? - was it for the oil? - was it to satisfy our industrial/military complex? I get the sinking feeling that it has to do with oil and that we plan on keeping bases over there for many years (to help keep the peace) (to protect the oil).

Meanwhile, Congressman Cleaver from Kansas City said that those controlling the government are manufacturing contrived distractions to divert people's attention from real threats. He said the real threat to our nation right now is the federal debt. He says that our country is borrowing heavily from China, South Korea and Japan. It makes this nation more financially and politically dependent on outside interests. We're losing our manufacturing base - the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The wealth of the nation is shifting faster and faster to the rich and powerful and the individual finds himself with less and less.

Could the war be a distraction? We keep saying that we must follow our leader during time of war, even if the war was created by him. Our attention and the news coverage is all directed toward Iraq and the subtle internal changes taking place withou our system get less press and often unnoticed. That would be a cruel trick.