Frustration

"Move Along, Nothing To See Here"

"Pay no attention to that man behind that curtain."

"Look over there, not over here."

Things are already going so bad in Iraq, Bush is trying to distract us with saber-rattling about Iran. Unfortunately, Bush has only succeeded in distracting himself from Afghanistan, the Taliban, and al Qaeda (remember them?).

Everytime I hear Bush or anyone mention 9/11 and Iraq in the same sentence I get so sick because, even though they say Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, they still conflate the two intentionally to create a false argument for staying in Iraq. Meanwhile, those who were actually resposible for 9/11, bin Laden and al Qaeda, are still free thanks to Mr. "Smoke 'Em Out, Dead Or Alive".

Seriously, how could anyone vote to re-elect Bush in 2004 or support him now while bin Laden is still free? Clinton, Gore, and Kerry all would have gotten bin Laden by now. Reagan would have gotten him by now. George H. W. Bush would have gotten him by now. A monkey would have gotten him by now! But not George "Bring 'Em On" Bush. Oh no, that's way too hard for him. He couldn't find the sun on a sunny day.

Thanks to our misfortune of having Bush as our president, bin Ladin is still at-large and now this:

Al Qaeda rebuilding its network, U.S. says

Washington -- Senior leaders of al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

U.S. officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan.

The United States has identified several new al Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan. Officials said that both U.S. and foreign intelligence services had collected evidence leading them to conclude that at least one of the camps in Pakistan might be training operatives capable of striking Western targets.

Outrageous, isn't it?

And yet, where is the outrage? Where is the outrage in the media? Where is the outrage in the public? Where is the incessant vitriol from the Republicans that we all know would be there if it was a Democratic president that had allowed this to happen? And speaking of Democrats, where is their outrage? Independents?

Are left-leaning bloggers the only ones who care about this?

Or this:

Afghan Forces Retake Western Town

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan security forces supported by NATO troops on Tuesday retook a town in western Afghanistan that briefly had fallen to Taliban militants, an official said.

About 200 Afghan police and soldiers moved into the remote town of Bakwa in Farah province at 5 a.m. and faced no resistance, said Gov. Muhajuddin Baluch. He said some NATO troops joined the operation.

The Afghan forces were searching the vicinity for the militants, who moved into Bakwa on Monday and briefly held it and then left, taking three seized vehicles with them, he said.

It was the second time this month that the government has lost control of a district in the region.

Why is there any Taliban left to take any city even briefly?!

Look, as my Republican father can attest, I was against the war in Iraq from the beginning, and even though those of us who were against it in 2003 were considered crazy or even treasonous back then, we have since then been vindicated for the most part (Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity are still holding out). However, our vindication has changed nothing. We are still in Iraq, and Bush and his followers still won't admit it was a mistake. All the pundits and columnists who were wrong about Iraq and continue to be wrong still have their jobs, and their opinions are still taken seriously. Conversely, writers and bloggers like me who were right then and right now get passed over for paid positions, and our opinions are ignored.

I think people fail to realize that we were against the war in Iraq because it was inherently wrong, not because we were against war in general. I was strongly for the war in Afghanistan. I was for war in Afghanistan before 9/11. I knew about the Taliban in the late 1990s before most Americans had even heard of them. After 9/11, I was worried that we were not going into Afghanistan fast enough. And now, al Qaeda and the Taliban are growing stronger in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It is just one more thing that we were right about before the war in Iraq, that if we went into Iraq, we wouldn't finish the job in Afghanistan.

Don't get me wrong; it feels good to have been proven right about everything, but it doesn't make up for all the incredible frustration over being ignored all these years and the horrific, maddening exasperation from the fact the we are still being ignored.

If I could just make people understand that frustration and the outrage, then maybe we could end this cycle of mistakes. That is why I bother to write these rants that are probably rarely read, why I write a political blog with little hope of getting anything in return. Maybe if enough people like me try to make our voices heard, then we won't have any more North Koreas, or Vietnams, or Afghanistans, or Iraqs.

How many times do we have to learn the same lesson before we stop repeating these mistakes? Bob Dylan said,"The answer is blowing in the wind." Well, apparently that's not enough. For those of you who don't speak wind-ese, the answer is here. It is on Daily Kos, MyDD, Think Progress, Crooks And Liars, Talking Points Memo, Firedoglake, and many, many other blogs that have been giving the right answers all along.

How many times do we have to be proven right before the public, the government, and the mainstream media listen to us?

After all, what is important to us is not being right; it is making sure we do the right thing.