Tuesday

I felt the tension yesterday, everytime I turned on CNN... but I couldn't stay away. I know, I should just turn the damn TV off... I feel better today, I slept for most of the day yesterday. I am sure that it was a combination of a lack of sleep, working too hard, stress and not drinking any caffeine for a couple of days. I noticed that I was getting back into the habit of drinking iced teas and coffee at work and less and less water. I couldn't sleep at night, because I would leave the TV on... I would wake up at 2am or 3am and watch the news for awhile.

Last night, the TV was off.. but I woke up at 2am still... to the horrific sounds of coyotes killing something. Have you ever heard a pack of coyotes going in for a kill? The howling and the screaming.. for a moment it sounds like a great crowd of people screaming in terror.

Too much news... I guess... but I feel the need to keep abreast of what is going on. I am upset when I see people en mass, demonstrating against the war, against Bush. Of course, we all have the right to free speech.. that really is what we are helping the Iraqis to have again.. or at least to be able to have some form of free speech... but when our troops are dying and being shot in the head and being paraded on TV... I just wish that everyone would give those families a little support and hold off on the protests for a little while. Use your vote and vote in the person that you want to run this Country. I voted for Gore... but I would have voted for John McCain if he was the Republican Candidate. I don't think that anything would be different today. Do you think that Gore would have sidetracked this War? Would he have ignored the warnings from top advisors? Well, I do think that having Colin Powell as Sec'y of State, was a mistake... an ex General... in charge of diplomacy... just didn't work.

I will say something.. I really want to mention how juvenile the Iraqi leadership sounds every single time they are in front of a camera. I guess it is the way they are.. but to call the President names, and to talk about casualties and that they are winning this war.. or to try to bring others into the confrontation by calling the coalition "Zionists" etc... I am impressed by the new conference that have been held by General Tommy Franks.. he does present just the facts.. without any taunting.. he answers all questions that are posed to him and he has .. at least I believe... spoken the truth.

We all know that there will be more casualties... but we don't even have a really good picture of what is happening to the Iraqi soldiers. I know that as they become POWs and are in our care, they receive medical attention, but many of them are dying. When you see a difficult firefight with casualties on our side.. you can multiply that number by 10 or 100 to the casualties on the other side. This morning, I heard that in one firefight.. there were 8 marine casualties.. and they fell back.. and let the helicopters come in and clean up. On the others side of the ridge.. there were probably 500 casualties.

I think the most poignant interview that I saw was from a American Pilot that had just returned from flying his A-10 Warthog over Iraq. He said that he was afraid for his life that he heard the warning go off that his plane had been locked onto by an Iraqi missile but that he avoided being killed.. He said that he still had to circle the target until they had full assurance that no innocents would be in the target and the only combatants were going to receive the bombs.. he was almost in tears when he answered the questions.. "did you drop the bombs eventually?" He said, "my bird is empty..." meaning that all of the bombs/missiles were unleashed on that target. He was from a National Guard group... that was called to duty for the war.

I am trying hard not to get so worked up about this.. I am praying that the Iraqi soldiers see the futility in standing to fight and that they lay down their guns.

Here are a few things to read:

Read Saddam's Bio or,

The History of Iraq

While your at it.. if you want to read an opposing viewpoint.. read michaelmoore.com

You see.. Michael Moore is correct. You won't see a bunch of people gathering in support of a war.... The United States is not full of blood thirsty... war mongers. However, I do think that George Bush and Tony Blair.. made the decision that Saddam Hussein's regime had to be stopped... I think that if you read Hans Blix Report you will see that even in that report.. Read the section called "Chemical Weapons"

So, I do wish that a war wasn't necassary to stop Saddam Hussein... but no amount of diplomacy was going to convince him to do anything differently if there was no ultimatum from the United Nations.. and then when France said.. that the would NEVER authorize any attack on Iraq.. then there never would be an ultimatum from the UN... as a matter of fact.. Saddam would have never had to change his ways.

Why do you think that France feels this way.... Read this.... "France's economic ties to Iraq" from the BBC

It seems that there is a good reason why Russia felt the same way.... Russia's ties to Iraq