Since you can't turn on the news or open a newspaper without hearing about Iraq, I feel an obligation to give my thoughts on the subject in three parts.
How to avoid this situation in the future:
In my opinion the main reason we went into Iraq was because of faulty intelligence. I believe this faulty intelligence was greatly the result of the group think that occurs when one hires only those who are politically acceptable to the man in charge. In other words, the President hired a bunch of "yes men", let it be known what he thought and what he really wanted the outcome to be and they made it happen.
As we have seen way too many times in the past, intelligence information can be made to look one way or another if the people gathering the intelligence are inclined to do so. Given that almost all of the "proof" we were presented concerning Saddam's role in arming the terrorists and creating weapons of mass destruction has been proven false, the only conclusion that can be made at this time is that the analysts made the information fit the result the boss wanted to hear.
This will not be allowed to happen in my administration. I will only hire the best people for the job regardless of political affiliation. They will be allowed to do their job without political influence and alternative points of view will always be welcome.
How we got ourselves into this mess:
There are a lot of complicated theories on how we got ourselves in the current situation in Iraq that could take up dozens of pages and put everyone to sleep. However, I believe that the simple explanation is that we, as an American people, do not have the will and the attitude to properly deal with a situation such as Iraq at this time.
When one goes in and removes a dictator two things usually occur after the dictator is gone. First a tremendous power vacuum is created and, second, people who have been operating under repressive policies are suddenly set free from that repression. As we have seen, this creates tremendous problems. Unfortunately, when we chased Saddam out of power, everyone in the administration just assumed that everyone would like us and everything would just be great. They never gave the entire process any decent thought.
If you are going to remove a dictator, in order to keep chaos from ensuing you must replace the dictator first with another dictatorial form of government that will gradually move towards democratic rule. The last time we effectively removed dictators was in World War II and, while both Germany and Japan are now firmly Democratic in their form of governments, we initially started out ruling those countries in a fairly dictatorial and military way. That allowed those countries to slowly develop and grow into a Democracy while keeping a lid on the type of chaos we are now seeing in Iraq.
As Americans, we are not willing to be dictatorial at this time (no matter how good it might be for the people we are dictating to - sounds like being a parent, doesn't it), nor are we willing to accept and deal with the criticism from the rest of the world, so the simple fact is we shouldn't do it except under extreme circumstances where we are forced to take such an action.
What do we do now?
Well, we shouldn't have gone in and we shouldn't have done it the way we did, so what should we do now? I have a couple of serious problems with Congress' current stance on the situation.
First, not all of Iraq is a complete disaster. The oil fields are pumping oil without disruption. The northern, Kurdish part of Iraq appears to be working well. There appear to be a lot fewer problems in the southern part of the country so that only leaves the middle of the country as the complete disaster that we hear about every day. What happens to those people and parts of the country when we just cut and run? Is that fair? Is it right? No.
Second, how can we justify not finishing the job we started. A simple comparison would be that of a hiring someone to remodel your house, they come in tear the house apart, try to make it right and then just give up and walk away. How mad would you be? Do we need to make the people in the Middle East any madder at us than they already are at this time?
So we have to stay and finish the job. This means we have to get a lot tougher and dictatorial in our ways of dealing with the situation that has developed. We have to allow the marines and army to do their job without a lot of political interference, even if that means the draconian step of house-to-house searches of every house and in this zone. We have to greatly reduce the restrictions on our personnel that they are operating under because of the "rules of engagement". We have to stop worrying about what the rest of the world, the politicians and the general public thinks and do what it takes to get the job done and get Iraq back on the path towards some sort of normalcy.
Members of Congress are correct in calling this our "second Vietnam" because they are doing exactly what they did during the Vietnam War to make it an un-winnable situation.
Now I realize that this trying to sum up the entire Iraq situation in a couple of pages is very difficult and, quite honestly, I could go on for pages and pages, but the purpose of these emails is to give you a sample of how I would deal with problems as President in my own words. As my campaign progresses and I start to receive more questions from the media, I will expound in greater depth on my policies and positions. However, doing the right thing is usually a fairly simple process and if it requires an extremely long explanation then maybe there's just too much justification trying to go into a decision than is necessary.
On a lighter note, the first batch of "Anything is Possible in America" - Frank McEnulty for President, t-shirts are completed and available for contributions through the website. They are a nice quality t-shirt and I think you'll be happy with them. Please visit the website for a picture of the shirt and to make a donation. We'll contact you to get the size you'd like to have.
Some of you have already donated to the campaign and, for those who have, please send me an email at frank@frankforpresident.org letting me know what size t-shirt(s) you'd like to receive.
As always, please remember that "Anything is Possible in America" and send all your friends to website.
Thanks
Frank McEnulty
www.frankforpresident.org
"Anything is Possible in America"
Frank McEnulty
www.frankforpresident.org
