They Are NOT Peacekeepers!

Republican here, and I must say I did not want to see Bush Jr. become President the first time he won in 2000. I was sitting in my little apartment watching the election returns with a buddy of mine and I told him that night that we were heading back to Iraq. Now, I didn't predict 9-11, but I knew Bush Jr. would use any and all pretense to get us back into Iraq to take out Saddam. Not saying that Saddam didn't need to go. All things considered he probably did.

My trouble started when the actual "war" in Iraq (you know, the actual military action) was over. We eliminated Saddam's army, his Red Guard, even had his butt once we found the whole he crawled into. Everything was going good, then they turned what we are trying to do over there into a "peace keeping" mission rather than a military mission.

I'm sorry, but our military are not peacekeepers! We developed the most advanced military in the world for two reasons, and two reasons only: To kick people's asses and to use the threat of power. It's their job, and they are the best in the world at it. The trouble starts when we start trying to harness that power into a little box called "peacekeeping" or "advisor." We train our soldiers to shoot, to kill, to completely dominate their enemy. And believe me, they are quite good at what we trained them to do. But we never trained them to take fire WITHOUT returning it because suddenly they aren't soldiers but Peacekeepers because some idgit in Washington decided that a name change would be a good idea.

Bush Jr. isn't the only President to not understand what the military is good for. Clinton didn't get it either (think Mogadishu). Kennedy sure as hell didn't get it when we went into Vietnam as "advisors." Bush Sr. did get it. He used the military to kick Saddam's sorry ass out of Kuwait, then brought them home.

I know the world needs "peacekeepers," but if the US is going to supply them we need to develop a "peacekeeping force" that is separate from our military. Until we are willing to cough up the tax dollars to do so, please, let our young men and women in the military do what they do best and come back home. If that means that Iraq ends up under US Martial Law (like Japan at the end of WWII) to keep our military safe, so be it. But trying to man road blocks between the Shiites and Sunnis (who have hated, and been killing, each other for a thousand years) is NOT doing us or them any good.

I don't want to see any more people die in Iraq, us or them. But, if I have to choose, let it be them.