The Political Inquirer

I remember pretty well the spring of 2003. I was a sophomore in high school, and the Iraq war fever was hitting its high point. My dad had FOX on every night, and I would sit out of boredom and watch Hannity & Colmes, and listen to the nightly stories about why we should be going into Iraq. Hannity would repeat the same reasons every night, but they sounded good, right? Saddam violated over a dozen U.N. resolutions, attacked his neighbors, and killed thousands of his own people.

That year I was also taking an AP history course. My teacher was always interested in the news, so much so that he would be watching the TV that was in the classroom everyday before class started, watching the initial days of the war. He always had a bottle of water at his desk, which he would take a few gulps, then shake his head silently at the TV. “Just another Democrat teacher, nothing new” I would say to myself. I liked him, so I let it slide.

We were supposed to be welcomed as liberators. The war was fast and efficient, the barely existent military forces of Iraq were defeated as the coalition forces made their way to Baghdad. I remember the famous clip on live TV of the Iraqi’s pulling down the statue of Saddam Hussein. Those were the good old days of the war. The years to follow would be slow, painful, and expensive. I supported the war without really giving a second though to why. That’s what all the other ‘conservatives’ were calling for, so it seemed like the right thing to do.

The war continued on into Senior year with no signs of a withdrawal. Every day casualties would be reported, much like they are still. All this while shaky and messy political processes were going on, and alas, to this day, not much progress has really occurred. But the mood switched from watching the events closely, to a sort of disconnection with what was happening. We all knew it was going on, but pushed it to the back of ours minds and just continued on with our daily lives. This was the case for most, especially ignorant high school kids, though of course not for those who were receiving letters, or getting that knock on the door, from the military.

Freshman year came, and despite going to a very liberal college, and the stereotype of college students turning liberal, my thoughts were unchanged on the war. My view on it was tweaked, and followed a lot of mainstream ‘conservatives’. Yes, it wasn’t done well, and we weren’t prepared for the post-Saddam era, but it was worth it to remove that madman, and now we need to clean up the mess.

The next year, sophomore year, which was fall 2006 to spring 2007, this past year, was the most important. Looking at the Republican choices likely to run for president, I quickly became a “Rudy-guy” because he was conservative on many (sort of) issues, from the same state I was, and had a tough stance on terrorism. Then I switched around September to Fred Thompson, even though he wouldn’t declare his candidacy for another year. He was similar to Rudy in regards to Iraq and terrorism, and was well known from movie and TV roles.

I was still rooting for the Republicans to hold on to Congress during the 2006 elections. Everyone knew they were going to lose seats because of the war and problems with their spending, it was just a matter of how many of those seats would be lost. In the house the losses came early and often, and lasted the entire night. The senate race was much closer, but was eventually lost as well as Allen lost his Virginia seat to Jim Webb, the anti-war Democrat.

The Democrats won. “Maybe these fools will end the war. And now Nancy Pelosi is our house speaker …. lovely,” were some of my initial thoughts about the elections. But change would not be coming. Ten months later and there has been no change. Congress continues to fund the war, and continues giving in to the Bush surveillance programs and legislation.

One Democratic senator threw a curveball at everyone in regards to the war. Instead of speaking out against the war directly, and trying to end it through legislation, Charles Rangel (D-NY) decided to reintroduce legislation to reinstate the draft. I despise every single political position this man has, but this is one thing I can thank him for. Upon reading the media coverage of this, and even knowing the bill had no chance of passing, it was a turning point for my perspective on the war, and politics in general.

His logic was that if the draft was reinstated, leaders would not go so carelessly to war, and he might have somewhat of a point, but the logic was quite flawed for a time when the country was already at war. Doing a draft at that point would not stop the already occurring war, so it would only force more into the military system. Coming from the party who was voted in and mandated to limit the war. As I read the news stories that popped up on it, I got an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach, and came to the realization that, if I was not willing to go do it myself, how could I ‘really’ support the war at heart?

I believe I fell into a trap which a lot of media commentators and conservatives fell into. Talking tough is one thing, supporting it enough to go yourself is another. Or as I like to say these days, “it’s easy to be tough on terror from your recliner,” and I think that’s what most of the war supporters are right now. Yes, I do realize a lot of soldiers have conservative values and believe in the cause, but majority of war supporters are not serving.

The execution of Saddam Hussein came last winter as well. After a crazy trial and a lot of wasted time, they finally sent him to the gallows. And it seems they couldn’t even hang him right, with leaked videos and pictures coming out right away. Oddly similar to how they can’t do much right in Iraq at all. I wasn’t sad that he was gone, but I didn’t experience and celebratory moods that I would’ve expected of myself just a year or two before. I still had images in my memory of the Saddam like the one in the Hot Shots movies. He may have been evil, but this man was no direct threat to us. There are many others who are guilty of mass murder around the world, how do we justify only going for one?

I spent the later months of winter wondering “what now?” for what I was to do with my views on politics and candidates. I didn’t agree with the Democrats plans for spending and social programs, and the Republicans proved to be shallow and not even conservative with spending and war. The historic conservative position is to be anti-war. I was hesitant to discuss the war. How can one be a Republican and not be for the war? Who ever heard of such a thing?

Another turning point came in April, and especially May. The first big debate of the 2008 Republican primary season came in May, a debate at the Reagan Library, and it was a big debut for Ron Paul. He had the courage to go on stage in front of a possibly hostile crowd, and proclaim to the country that it was OK to be a conservative and be against this needless war.

So much has happened since then. The election cycle is heating up, and a paradigm shift is now in play. Republicans are coming out in increasing number saying they do not support this war. The success of Ron Paul recently is forcing a shift towards more constitutional and libertarian values. To think, if Paul had said any of these things during the 2002 or 2004 elections, he would’ve been laughed off the stage. Sure, he hasn’t gotten a good reception from the pro-war Republicans, and the process of convincing them will be hard, but the position that you can oppose the war and be a conservative now has grounding, and perhaps that is a reason why so many ‘conservatives’ are now annoyed with him.

Being someone who has seen both sides of the aisle, the “neocons” as many call them, and the anti-war Republicans, I have found that the neocon path was the more mindless one. My views were dominated by what the media was spewing out, and they all wanted this war. I didn’t think for myself much during that time, and when I did I just felt indifferent. This is not an issue one can feel indifferent for.

Now the attention has turned towards Iran. Sean Hannity is giving his list of reasons to attack them nightly on Hannity & Colmes. All the ‘conservatives’ are calling for military action. Whether they get what they want again or not, I will rest knowing that their numbers will be at least one fewer this time.