Lately I saw a cool video on youtube of a Soldier's response to the debate between Ron Paul vs. Mike Huckabee on the War in Iraq. Before going on any further with this piece and writing my own opinion on it, I'd like you to take ten minutes and watch this video:

Now the first question many of you, especially conservatives will ask is " is this person a real soldier and not just someone who is disgruntled with the war"?

To tell you the truth, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a real soldier or if he was a fake but the points he makes are pretty valid either way. Lets review:

1. Over 5,000 men in arms for the armed forces have died in this conflict

2. Well over half the U.S. population is tired of the war and wants our troops back home

3. Regardless of this "Honor" that Huckabee talks about, a good portion of the soldiers do want to come home.

4. We went in there trying to kill terrorists, but when Bush finally found out that he couldn't confuse the public and that Bin Ladden and Saddam weren't related, he changed the purpose of the war to "fighting for freedom".

5. The people who are majorly profitting from this war are not the US public, the men in arms, or the Iraqi people. It is indeed the profiteers and contractors who are profitting from this war. They are not fighting the war, the soldiers are.

Now, besides those facts, here's my opinion:

I still don't quite understand what this "Honor" that Huckabee is talking about means. We made a mistake going into Iraq because Iraq had nothing to be with the war on terrorism and the administration thought it was a quick-in, quick-out war, which it turned out not to be. We have been in there for 5 years and do not look to be getting out any time soon. The people who are fighting our soldiers cannot be called terrorists. They are fighting for a cause they believe in, they actually do want their country back. These people are not from Al-queda or anything, they are just pissed out that we drove into their country with tanks, toppled their government and are still there trying to put in place a government that we believe is right for them.

We really haven't made things any better than they were. Sure we got rid of Saddam and the Sunni Government but as soon as we leave, a Shiite government will just take its place, and historically they have not been any better than the Sunnis. People in that region will follow religious leaders, whether we like it or not.

Why are we still in there? Do we think we can accomplish anything in the end anyways? And how many of our soldiers have to die before we start thinking otherwise. That region has been a battlefield because of ethnic and Cultral Divide for Millenia on end(biblically ever since the division between Jacob and Ishmael). Do we really think that us going in there with tanks and big guns will actually rememdy the situation. Despite what the administration says that we are winning the war every year, the casualities continue and the troops don't come back home. I wonder how long this will drag on until we come to our senses.