Walking in Another's Shoes-- Frontline "Battle for Iraq"

All should watch Frontline "Battle for Iraq" linked below but I know most will probably not because it is not as much fun as "Dancing with the Stars" or the Superbowl or "The Voice." According to the 2010 Census, "the population of the United States was 308,745,538. Including active duty, national guard and reserves, the population of Americans in uniform is 2,317,761, meaning that less than1 percent, .75 percent to be exact, of the country's population is a member of the military." Most of the US population sink into television oblivion while thousands to whom we pay lip service homage go to their untimely deaths or, if they are lucky to come home alive, live a lifetime with brutal disability. Think into the past when the Bush administration first invaded Iraq, a nation which did nothing to us. Think on that Shock and Awe day when an administration lied about Hussein possessing WMD which were allegedly earmarked for us. There were no WMD. Bush and his henchmen pushed lies to take the nation to war and so the Iraq War has morphed over nearly two decades into civil war, then morphed into ISIS and goes on now day after day after day after day for nearly 15 years without end as a Middle East region, too, contagiously explodes into never ending violence.

Innocents are caught in a trap they never set for themselves. Refugees desperately clinging onto life stealing a shred of hope that something will improve beg entrance into a country where Lady Liberty beckons saying "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door" but its president bars the door. Refugees beg for help but the President of the United States wants to push them away even if their refugee status was bestowed upon them by the United States of America.

ISIS says god willing, Sunnis say god willing, Shias say god willing, Christians say god willing and hypocrite of hypocrites Trump says god willing we will win. Whose side is god on anyway and why does homo sapiens man, who has the biggest brain, not question it all? God is coming to no one's rescue not even the US soldier, or Trump, or Christians or Muslims or anyone. How could that truth be more apparent and yet the mantra of god willing, god will help us, god is good, god is great, god will kill the infidel, god is angry, no god is so happy with those who blow up their bodies for afterlife bliss not ring a cacophony of screeching sound in our ears? God will NOT help anyone but man must help himself or become resigned to the permanent fact of permanent war. No amount of American fire power, no amount of US troops on the ground, no amount of presidential bluster in however many years he has to spew it will win against ISIS or will win against the Taliban in Afghanistan. One would think trump's best friend Putin would share a bit of his experience as to the impossible fight that is Afghanistan. The Russians were there nearly 10 years and left. Trump who knows no history cannot understand how futile the fight is in nearly every corner of the Middle East much less understand the many dimensions of why.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and getting the same result. Watch the Frontline documentary "The Battle for Iraq" and see into what sewer swamp our nation has been plunged. It is an eternal war that Bush could not end, that Obama could not end and that Trump will CERTAINLY not end. In fact, with Trump's loose tongue spouting confrontational verbiage alienating even our friends he just may plunge us into a deeper hell -- a nuclear hell -- from which there truly is no escape. As much as the bloviator-in-chief loves to puff up his chest to tell us we will get sick of winning so much. We may not get sick of winning so much but we surely will get sick of losing again. There is no winning Middle East wars that breed only insane violence, death, carnage and destruction. It creates an Arab mindset of hate toward those for whom there is already not much love. Who of you would want to live in this hellish place that is Iraq? Who of you would want to walk in an Iraqi's shoes? I suspect no one would!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/battle-for-iraq/