The people who will be voting
PostedNote: this post was written shortly before the Bush/Kerry election. At the time, GWB was the worst president in American history.
A couple of weeks ago at work, I got into a political discussion, trying to talk some sense into this guy, Carl (not his real name). I was trying to tell him why Operation Enduring Oppression Freedom was a stupid waste of our tax dollars, since we can’t even decide why we are there. (Weapons of mass destruction? 9-11? Oust a ruthless dictator? Spreading democracy? Anything but oil, it seems, will fly as an excuse.)
Carl replied that he was sure there were WMDs, but Saddam just “hid them in Iran”. I explained to him that if Iraq had WMDs in Iran, they would have detonated them by now. He looked confused, so I went on to explain how Iraq and Iran are bitter enemies, and the only thing they really have in common, other than a border, is hatred of America. This was obviously news to him.
I wonder what he would have said if I had continued and told him how a large chunk of Saddam’s weapons were given to them by the good old US of A, back when George Bush I was Vice President, to fight Iran.
Normally I would shake my head and sadly laugh at this level of ignorance (he wasn’t young by any means, and should have remembered all this from the ’80s), but right now, it is more scary than sad or funny. People like Carl are going to flock to the polls tomorrow, to vote for the very people who put us in Iraq to begin with. I urge you, my humble reader, to go vote tomorrow. Research the candidates in your district so you can make a more informed decision than Carl will make, and go help balance out all the ignorance.