United We Stand….Divided We Fall

By Lynne Weaver
On Tuesday, December 1st, I listened to President Obama explain to the American people why he made the decision to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. After several weeks of discussion with qualified military leaders and advisors, the president felt the Afghanistan buildup necessary and a matter of national security. By sending more troops we can pound the heck out of the al Qaeda terrorist network while training the Afghan people to fight their own battles.

Is it just their battle? Withdrawing from Afghanistan could mean an insurgency by al Qaeda against the U.S. and our allies who joined us in battle. Leaving Afghanistan before the task is complete may make us look weak in the eyes of the Afghan-based army of terrorists. Would terrorist attacks on the homeland of the United States increase if we back off now? It’s frightening to think that there are terrorists currently plotting future attacks on the U.S.

President Obama promised to end the war in Iraq by August 2010 but will this be possible with the Afghan buildup? Do I think the President is making the right decision? Since I am not a qualified military advisor, I won’t pretend to provide a qualified opinion. Here lies the problem between the right and left, the Republicans and the Democrats…word wars.

As a gatherer of public opinion, it seems we are in the midst of verbal wars between the two parties. Occasionally an Independent or member of the Green party steps in with a word or two before dodging safely away from the battle of words, many of which are not very nice. I spend a fair amount of time reading comments posted by bloggers using fictitious names in several online newspapers. With every decision President Obama makes, the Democrat and Republican readers come out limbering up those fingertips to prepare for ‘word battle’. No matter what decision the president makes, the Republicans complain and the Democrats jump to defend the person they voted for to lead the country. The left blames the former president for the current economic woes and the right blames the current president and the last Democratic president for the national debt and both blame the other for every single thing wrong with the country.

Eventually, blaming past and current presidents gets monotonous and the alpha dog name-callers begin to battle it out with such labels as “right wing-nuts,” “lib-tards,” “morons,” “pigs,” and a host of other words that would probably not be said if these bloggers were face to face with their real names and current addresses pinned to their shirts.

Are Bin Laden’s people taking note of the widening gap that is growing between American political party lines? Do terrorists view our divisions as hatred for each other and consider this an opportunity to advance terrorist activities while we are absorbed in political battles of our own?

United we stand. Divided we fall.