.PID: SX 4.5/P/6.0W5 RB10275   
   .MSGID: 1:135/382 974ea978   
      
    I keep reading, over and over, that so many people are hurt and   
    angry that, after all those years, Iraq is being cut up by a   
    handful of extremist invaders.   
      
    Families who lost a child there are saying they don't want their   
    child to have died in vain. They don't want their family member   
    to have suffered wounds and psychological harm in vain. All that   
    suffering and death and cost should not be allowed to have been   
    in vain.   
      
    Has it ever occured to anyone that is the worst possible reason   
    to send troops to Iraq? That is why we couldn't win in the first   
    place, our troops were sent there to serve our benefit, or,   
    rather that of the oil industry. They certainly were not sent to   
    serve the betterment of the Iraqi people.   
      
    So why would the Iraqi people want our men there if they were   
    only there for America's benefit?   
      
    And why would it be any different now?   
      
    We have Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, the Ukraine, all in trouble   
    and congress demanding Obama do something about all of them, yet   
    not willing to say what, or to authorize anything.   
      
    Time for a US president to affirm America's commitment to   
    freedom. By which I mean, the president should announce the   
    basic standards of freedom are freedom of speech, freedom of the   
    press, freedom of religion and from religion, freedom to   
    peaceably assemble, and free and honest elections.   
      
    Then he should announce, if American forces are requested   
    anywhere in the world, the price will be, all those freedoms be   
    instituted.   
      
    He should announce he will not send one single American soldier   
    to any place in the world, other than to rescue innocent people   
    and get out, or capture our enemies and get out, unless it is   
    under those conditions.   
      
    Requesting American military assistance requires accepting those   
    conditions, and any government that attempts to renege on the   
    agreement will be overthrown.   
      
    That would set a standard that will dampen the enthusiasm of   
    petty dictators under attack to cry for American assistance when   
    he is to blame for his own troubles.   
      
    Anytime and everytime an American soldier dies to shore up a   
    dictatorship, his death was in vain.   
      
      
      
   BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn   
      
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