I'm glad to see that General Franks has made the statement that troops will stay in Iraq until a free government is in place. This is a very important point to me. Hopefully we can help the Iraqis establish a good government that helps them build their country into a nation that is free from oppression and ethnic strife.

Ok, a friend sent me an email asking about my views, and I realized a couple of my posts might have misled. I have a tendency to try to imagine someone arguing with me as I write, so sometimes I try to back up statements to the point of overkill. I thought I would clarify a couple of things:
1) I'm not anti-government or anti-Bush. I just speak out when I disagree, as anyone should. I disagreed with Clinton and I spoke up then as well. I thought he should have been impeached. I haven't said one bad thing directly about Bush yet.
2) I disagreed with going to war without the U.N.'s backing, this is true. But since then I have supported the troops as much as everyone else, and I haven't said a word about our political motivation for the war. I have only voiced my opinion about what may happen in the mid-east when it's all said and done.
3) My post about blind patriotism is just about how people should open their eyes, ears, and mind. Don't just blindly believe the government does everything right. It was mainly about how I feel it is wrong to imprison a person without charging them with a crime. The Patriot Act makes this possible now.

Anyway, just thought I'd clarify :-) I'm neither liberal nor conservative, neither Republican nor Democrat. I'm just an average Joe [ha!] who tries to see things as they really are without blindly accepting anything without research.