Presidential Address

As you probably know, the President just addressed the nation. He discussed a possible reduction in troop levels in Iraq. I think he said 5000 would come home by the end of the year and that by July of next year the number of brigades would be reduced from 20 to 15. But he said that these reductions would be dependent upon our “success” in Iraq. I am not holding my breath. He has never clearly defined our mission in Iraq other than establishing a stable, democratic government. We don’t even have that in the U.S. anymore. Instead we ruled by activist judges, regulatory agencies, and a souped up executive with extraordinary powers. The only good thing that I can say about this is that the President did not call upon Congress to authorize the use of force on Iran.

As for the Democratic response, I agree with some of what Senator Reed (Rhode Island) said about the futility of the Iraq war and that it diverted our efforts against the real enemy, Osama Bin Laden. However, I would point out that most of the Democrats went along with the President in authorizing and funding of “the use of force” (which is an unconstitutional, undeclared war). Most of the Democrats, including even Senator Reed, are still willing to fund the war for political reasons instead taking a stand for what is right. They would have been a lot better off if they had run a candidate like Senator Reed for President in 2004 since he was against the war in the beginning, instead of Kerry, who couldn’t make up his mind.