Distracted by the War

For the last four years, the progressive left has been overwhelmingly distracted, by the Iraq war.

There are some good lessons to be learned from Iraq, like the inability of the Bush administration to devote adequete resources to get the job done. The mess over there could only be due to incompetence, not enough personnel and equipment, and government-phobia, despite what the rightwing says, about how hard it is to turn the country into a democratic country.

But there are other issues, important ones, for American progressives to consider. We have the largest gap between rich and poor that anyone in the world has ever seen. We have easy access to guns and not enough mental health screening programs in the schools. We have inadequete funding in the schools. Distracted by the slow progress in Iraq, the issue of climate change has just gone by unnoticed much by many progressives. We still don't have a health care system that puts people above profit!!!

Yes, we need to do better in Iraq, and a better president will surely do better there. But there are more pressing issues.

The rightwing has distracted progressives with this war and even made some doubt that the government could promote democracy abroad. It almost makes me miss the greatest "Republican" of our time, Bill Clinton, because although he snuck in free trade and welfare reform, at least he was good enough when he fought against human rights abuses in other nations to bring some sembance of democratic justice to the world and made America look good in the eyes of those around the world looking to America for an example of progress and social justice.

However, what about promoting some democracy here? The sad tragedy of this war is that the rightwing will pump hundreds of billions of dollars of government money into another country, with limited success, and still be afraid to "nation build" OUR OWN NATION!

Bring home the troops one day, when it's safe and Iraq has the democracy we promised them. However, also, we need the government's attention to our roads, our schools, our crime problems, and our infrastructure, despite the laissez faire rightwing. We new progressives know that Americans will cheer on the troops if they come to our towns across America with a plan and strategy to rebuild America, just as they have their plan to rebuild Iraq, they should try to rebuild America while they're at it.