From: Gianni Jacklone <gianni@...6ix.com>
Date: 2004-11-03T01:23:09+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] US Presidential Election

I agree with the other posters who think this is perhaps an 
inappropriate topic to discuss on ruby-talk. However I believe political 
discussion is important, these are our lives and our children's lives 
and their children's lives we're talking about here. So I'll weigh in.

I live in NYC. I lost friends at 911. I wake up everyday knowing that I 
live in the number one target of terrorism. So naturally, I'm for the 
"War on Terrorism", though I find that phrase's vagueness scary. I'm for 
strength, for taking the fight to them before they bring it to us. 

I was deeply afraid after 911, and I still am. I don't think I'm the 
only one that shudders when I see a plane fly over the city. I was 
scared of WMD, and I still am. I know they're pointed at me, and my 
friends, and my countrymen, even my friends abroad. I was told Saddam 
Hussein was a threat, although it seemed to me that he was contained. I 
was told that he had WMD, all kinds of weapons, that he could use 
directly against me, my family, and my country, or that he could give to 
terrorists to use against us. I was told this by my President, by my 
Vice President, even by Colin Powell. I figured they had better intel 
then me, that their claims were based on facts, that this stuff was too 
important to skew and falsify. So I supported the war on Iraq, because I 
was scared.

And now I am ashamed. Ashamed that I was so easily manipulated, so naive 
to believe what my president told me at face value. That's right, I am 
ashamed that I trusted my President. And worse, I am ashamed that I am 
partly responsible for the deaths of US soldiers, many of them my own 
age. Like many Americans, I backed a war that I would never have picked 
up a gun to fight in. I am ashamed of myself.

It's time to face the truth. The President and his administration took 
advantage of our nation's fear after 911 to push through an agenda that 
they apparently had well before 911. And I do not feel safer because of 
it. In fact I feel more afraid. I know the WMD are still out there, 
though certainly not in Iraq, and I wonder what we're doing to actually 
find them. I know Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are still out there, and I'm 
sickened to think that their  messages probably resonate louder now.

The War on Iraq seems to me to be a code smell in the War on Terrorism. 
The rot of the Iraq war seems to have gotten so out of hand, that I'm 
not sure it can be refactored. But I have to believe it can, there is 
too much on the line.

We need a new Lead Architect, +1 for Kerry.

Sincerely,

Gianni Jacklone