by James Glaser
September 8, 2004

Every one says they support the troops, it doesn't matter if you are pro-war or a peace activist, you hate to see them killed, and you want them to come home.

George Bush is not saying when our Soldiers and Marines will be home, but John Kerry has the hope that he can bring them home in his first term. People who talk about their "first" are already thinking about their second term.

Kerry said, "We want those troops home, and my goal would be to get them home in my first term." That could be in four more years and that is just a goal. At the rate we are going, that would mean another 3,000 killed and twenty some thousand wounded and remember, Kerry is just calling this a goal. No firm commitment, no date set, and no hope for the anti-war American. Again Kerry talks about the war, and never even mentions the word Peace.

So why would an American like myself vote for John Kerry? I want the troops home now. To be honest I think we screwed up big time starting this war and staying to kill more Iraqis is a mistake. Let us call a spade a spade and admit we screwed up and walk away. I don't care if we run away, get our troops out of there.

If we must fight, then let's go after Osama bin laden. I think at one time we thought he had something to do with terror and the 9/11 attack. Somehow we took our eye off the ball and instead of going after the terrorists we knew, we went after Saddam Hussein.

Fourteen Americans were killed in Iraq on Monday and Tuesday. We don't know how many were wounded because they keep that a secret. Like a lot of information, we will get that figure in a week or two, but for now, no one knows.

Both Kerry and Bush keep telling us that we can't leave now, (we would look bad). What we need is a Candidate with the courage to admit we have made a mistake. I wouldn't mind voting for someone, who at one time in their life, had to write a bad check to buy food for their family.

Our two candidates are "show people." They look good for the camera and only say words which have been run through a focus group. It would be nice to have a real American run, one who really supported the troops, and one who could brake down and cry when he read about more of our troops getting killed in a war we made a choice to start.