Saturday, September 06, 2008

Sarah Palin and Iraq... and God

No one issue will have more impact on the next president than the Iraq war.

The most stunning aspect of Sarah Palin's vice-presidential candidacy is the absolute dearth of information about her views of the Iraq war.  Google produces nothing substantive, and no, merely visiting the Alaska Guard troops in Kuwait does not win foreign policy points.

By her own admission, she had not paid much attention to the Iraq war until her son showed intent to join the infantry.  In 2006,  when asked about the troop "surge" as proposed by President Bush,  she told Alaska Business Monthly:

I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place...

Huh?  Even those of us who have no child or other family member in the military have been keeping up with the issues especially in regard to such a massive military operation, and we all know there is no "exit plan in place."  That's called responsible citizenship.  Her lack of curiosity reminds me of the current inhabitant of the White House.  To this day Sarah Palin has yet to give an opinion about the Iraq war except some fatuous intonation that "victory is in sight", but then fails to elaborate on her definition of "victory."

Apparently Sarah Palin's religion informs much of the motive of the United States' involvement in Iraq.  The war is prescribed by her God and, regarding the troops, "Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God."  I did not know that!  I wish someone would tell the evil terr'ists so they would stop trying to kill us!

Furthermore, it turns out that God wants Alaskans to drill and transport fossilized dinosaur by-products to put into our gas tanks and furnaces. 

God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that... I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded... But really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God.

I'm not sure which language Governor Palin used to uttered those sage words, however, because for a couple decades she was a member of the Assembly Pentecostal Church, which is famous for its members having the ability to speak in tongues.

To say that understanding Iraq is important for a vice-presidential candidate is like saying that understanding the double-play is important for a potential shortstop.    Palin simply does not evoke confidence that she gets all the nuance of conducting a war in a theater such as Iraq, and I doubt the Muslim world will be impressed with her theology.

Seriously, this person wants to be my president?   So, again, Ms. Palin, stop feeding red meat to right wing nutjobs and start giving us substantive information about your world view.  

Sixty-five days.... and counting.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Honestly, I don't want to hear more about her worldview. Thus far I have heard quite enough.

She has shown a Bush-like lack of curiosity regards the Iraq war, believing instead that it is some sort of holy mission and she apparently prays for pipelines too. This is naturally in keeping with her other assinine positions, such as skepticism of global warming, which is matched only by a belief in creationism.

We also know she wants books in the library banned, uses Cheney-esque executive power to get people fired, and claims that the pledge of allegiance was good enough for her since it was good enough for our forefathers. Ahem... the pledge was invented after the forefathers.

And I don't even need to go into her lack of support for comprehensive sex education along with her slashing of support for single mothers. As a woman, I find these stances unforgivable.

And when I see someone sneer on my television screen as they deliver some of the most insulting remarks, bereft of basic respect for those on the opposing team, I know enough to identify that person as a hater. It isn't surprising that she has been annointed by Rush Limbaugh.

So thanks, but no thanks. I don't want to know more about this woman. She's just another far right extremist nut job like Ann Coulter. I know everything I need to know in order to draw this conclusion:

No way. No how. No McCain-Palin.*

(*Hat tip to Hillary)

The very fact that McCain chose this woman to be a heart beat away from the presidency should disqualify him from the presidency, and should disqualify anyone from ever calling him a maverick. Clearly he is a prisoner of the far reaches of the right wing.