flumoxed...

I've been watching the PBS special series America at a Crossroads. If you're not aware of it, check the link or find out when it's on your local PBS station. It's not a one topic series, ie Iraq. It is a series of eleven shorter films dealing with different topics. Here is the description from the website:

America at a Crossroads is a major public television event premiering on PBS in April 2007 that explores the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world — including the war on terrorism; the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on America’s role overseas.

It's not easy to watch. It's graphic; it's honest; it's frustrating.

The graphic nature is not meant to be a scare tactic or to give it a liberal/progessive slant. It just tells the truth like it is. The MSM filters what it shows the American people. This series does not filter it. Of course, the American people don't want to see it either. Without a doubt, those who back the administration's positions are going to cry foul and label it as either liberal or Democratic propaganda. Maybe it is. The problem is: the camera does not lie.

Watching this, I am haunted by one accusation that we hear over and over from the Bush administration: that the liberals/progressives/Democrats do not want to win this war. Why am I flumoxed? I'm not really sure what we are trying to win.

Mssrs. Bush and Cheney repeatedly say we're fighting to safeguard America's borders from terrorists. That may have been true in 2001 but how accurate of a description is it today?

Not a single member of the White House can explain what a win in Iraq would mean. I hear a lot of comments like this war is keeping America free from attack. This is absurd! The same people pushing this spin are keeping our borders open to any terrorist who wants to strike us from within. How stupid do they think we are?*

We're trying to bring democracy to the Middle-East. It's been under theocratic and dictatorial forms of government based on religion for hundreds of years. How did invading Iraq help to spread democracy? It's a civil religious war in all but name only to everyone except the Bush administration. They will not or do not want to admit it.

Is it not possible to leave Iraq to the people involved and let them sort out their own democracy? It might mean that a civil war will be recognized (versus a civil war not recognized) and the winner takes all.*

There are many people who believe that we are in Iraq for the oil. If the US had access to all that oil, wouldn't that bring the price of fuel down? How would BP, Exxon, et al react to lower prices at the pump? They're showing larger profits than at any time in economic history. It's also cannot be factually backed up:

Despite claims by some critics that the Bush administration invaded Iraq to take control of its oil, the first contracts with major oil firms from Iraq's new government are likely to go not to U.S. companies, but rather to companies from China, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. And Iraq's big oil contracts go to ...

Of course there are also the cynical reasons. The one that is the most absurd is to defeat Islam and spread democracy. The saddest one, and it probably is true for some people:

Many Conservatives that I communicate with on my own network of addresses tell me that they want to see the end of Islam in the Middle East. I’ve been told that Islam outnumbers us (whatever “us” is, or are) and it would mean a world war encompassing 80% of the nations on the planet. Another viewpoint is that the Middle East must be introduced (read “forced”) into a Democracy, which often means “mob rule.*

We hear that this administration lied to get the US into the war. There were no WMD's or even evidence of continued development.

Safety on US soil? Bush again yesterday said that the purpose it to secure the country's safety from terrorists. A reader on the Daily Dish today pondered:

I had a thought; if anyone can get a gun, and shoot people, even teenagers, and obviously psychotic people, then why haven't any Islamist terrorists done so?

The Revolutionary war was fought to secure freedom from a despotic government. The Civil War was fought to secure the Union from being torn apart. WWI was fought to stem the world conquering desires of the Kaiser. WWII was fought against the totalitarian regimes that wanted to conquer the world. The Cold War was fought to stop the spread of Communism.

Maybe we're fighting to bring down the price of oil? Maybe we're fighting to spread democracy? Maybe we're fighting to bring peace to the Middle East? Maybe, we are trying to save face for the United States, but how did we lose it to start? I'm not sure. As I said, "I'm flumoxed."

What do you all think? What is it exactly that we're trying to win?