I have respect for anyone that has ever served in the military.  Its built in.  My father served in Vietnam and my brother is in the Army right now in Iraq.

When I am listening to NPR and a father says that he is proud of his son who served in Iraq, that part I can get.  HOWEVER, when the same father then goes on to say that all he knew when his son enlisted was that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because ‘that’s what they told us,’ I lose a little respect for that man.  Not his son.  His son didn’t utter those words, but for anyone to have swallowed what George Bush was selling when led the United States to war with Iraq is unbelievable.

I was 22 when 9/11 happened.  I was an adult for the lead up to the war in Iraq.  I read the news, researched information on the internet and listened to whatever information I could absorb.  I didn’t for a second believe it.  It was a sad premise for going to war with no evidence of WMD but to still have that reason trumpeted around as a reason for going to war.  It is almost as ridiculous as the Bush administration trying to push an Iraqi-Al Qaeda link post 9/11.

Maybe its a side effect of the generation I am part of, but I don’t take much of what the government says at a face value.  From either side of the political party.  I consider myself pretty liberal in my political leanings, but even I find some of the stuff from the left ridiculous.  I used to listen to both Air America (when it existed) and Rush Limbaugh (of course I could only get through so much Limbaugh crap before having to turn it off out of disgust).  Both sides are self-aggrandizing.  So I read as much as I can.

I also am not naive enough to believe statements like “I will shut down Guantanemo when I am president,” and figure he’ll do it right away.  Nor did I think that as soon as George Bush was out of office we would pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan right away.  That’s ridiculous as well.  I like to listen and make up my own mind.  I wish more people did as well.