This Las Vegas Mother Says, “Bring the Troops Home!”

(Sara Michele Crusade/Examiner.com) – Every day it feels as if there are more and more things to stress about regarding the direction this blessed, but very lead astray, country is headed. At any given time, I can find multiple posts on Facebook about such things as: The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals denying Governor Jan Brewer’s appeal on SB1070, endeavoring to nullify Arizona’s 10th Amendment right; Harry Reid quietly killing Yucca Mountain and the potential 5,000 jobs and scientific advancement that could have come from it (innovation my ass, Harry); the purposeful explosive device that detonated outside a Los Angeles synagogue in what could be a sign of ever-increasing anti-Semitism world-wide; and then there’s President Obama’s “kinetic military action” folly in Libya.

As the mother of a soldier and aunt of a Marine, I am extremely sensitive to the military actions that may put either my son or nephew in harm’s way. I had heard, through a reliable source, that we may be going into Libya. When I shared what I had learned, people discounted me. “We’ll never go into Libya.” Hmm. At least $1 trillion later, I’ve predicted we will have boots on the ground soon. People have discounted that as well.

People also seem to have discounted that Obama had no authority to enter us into a war with Libya. Unlike President Bush, who sought congressional approval to enter Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama has gone rogue; and not in a good Sarah Palin-type of way. Entering Libya has been described as a “humanitarian mission” by political spin-masters, like Bill O’Reilly (whose “no spin zone” hasn’t stopped spinning since he assaulted the Bill of Rights and insulted Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes on his show questioning the legitimacy of the Oath Keepers organization and whether or not martial law is appropriate). My response to the humanitarian argument is: If we are in the business of providing humanitarian aid, why haven’t we done so in Darfur – where approximately 400,000 people have died since 2003 when fighting erupted? If we are all about humanitarian aid, why haven’t we assisted His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his followers since they had to flee Chinese rule in 1959 (humanitarian aid is different than the CIA operations run in the 1950s)?

Personally, I do not consider arming rebels who have no allegiance to anyone but themselves, against their government, humanitarian aid. Of course, since we are giving the rebels weapons, we also have CIA boots-on-the-ground training them. As you may recall, this was such a successful endeavor previously in Afghanistan, when the CIA armed and funded the Islamist mujahedeen against the Soviet-backed government in Kabul in a war that left more than a million Afghans dead and created the enemy that perpetrated the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. During our “humanitarian” efforts in Afghanistan against the Soviets, we emboldened the Taliban, which then created a tyrannical government that supported terrorism and provided refuge to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, eventually bringing us back to Afghanistan to fight against the very people we armed and supported.

When we first entered Afghanistan and Iraq, I supported the wars. I worked with an Iraqi who had fled his country when Saddam Hussein took control and who was thankful that Americans had finally gone in and liberated his country. My co-worker had not seen his family in 20 years. A decade later, I have a much different opinion about fighting in the Middle East. Perhaps if the rules of engagement were such that our troops could fight a real war, like in Germany and France, I might have a different opinion. But sending our sons and daughters into battle and then proverbially tying their hands behind their backs so they cannot genuinely fight is as cockamamie as arming rogue rebels who will one day hate us and turn our weapons and training against our troops. It’s as stupid as forbidding our troops from destroying opium crops in Afghanistan knowing that the drugs will come to the United States; that tax payers will pay to fight a war on drugs; that taxpayers will pay to provide services for unemployed heroin addicts; that addicts will rob and steal from citizens and corporations to get money to buy the heroin; and that the money will end up back in Afghanistan funding the terrorists who are shooting at our military. The insanity is more baffling than the world Alice found herself in when she fell through the rabbit hole!

(Sara Michele Crusade is a freelance writer and photographer whose work has been published in the U.S. and Germany. She is a veteran of the U.S. Army, and holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology. Email Sara at conservativecrusade@yahoo.com.)