Making war is much easier than making peace.

Can someone please explain to me how this war in Iraq is supposed to be making us safe? Recruitment for the Army is down, our troops are spread extremely thin, we've got theatres of operation in Iraq and Afghanistan that are manned by troops that have been there well past their tour of duty, and at the same time we're posturing against Iran, Syria, North Korea, and who knows who else that isn't being broadcast in the media?

Speaking of the media, they're still being labeled the "liberal elite" media, even though this recent mainstream media report states that the need for new recruits is because of 9/11, rather than the war in Iraq, when anyone who can think for themselves knows it's the exact opposite.

Thinking back to the aftermath of 9/11, I remember that we enjoyed an unprecedented sympathy from the rest of the world because of the attacks, and the majority of Americans would have enthusiatically manned the front lines against the fanatics who planned and executed the cowardly attack against America.

Now the war in Iraq, perceived by Islam as an attack against all people of their faith and roundly opposed by most of the rest of the world, has led to an all time low approval of America and it's policies.

"Who cares", say the isolationoids. What they don't understand is that the world economy is no longer measured against the dollar. That's one reason our economy is in the crapper. Not to mention that our people are dying in greater numbers while the rest of the world is backing off from our push for "democracy". They've got democracy, and will be happy to share it. They'd just rather not do it at gunpoint.

To date there are over 1600 American soldiers dead because of our "freedom initiative", and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Sure, it accomplished the ouster of Saddam Hussein (which Bush, Sr. failed to achieve) and led to a democratic election of leaders (many of which are as hard-line fundamentalist as the former regime). But considering that the country is more dangerous to the average citizen from insurgents, and what this war has cost us in American lives and dollars (two hundred billion and counting), I question the war's value.

And there's no end in sight. Insurgent attacks are on an upward climb. There have been more people killed every month by the insurgency this year than any since Bush declared "mission accomplished" in 2003.

Granted, there's no easy way out of this dilemna. If we pull out of Iraq right now, we leave those people at the mercy of those who are willing to die to change things back to the way they were before we interfered.

But we can resist the effort to expand this war elsewhere. Right now we're rattling sabres at Iran, Syria, North Korea, Palestine, and a host of others. We've already stretched our manpower to the limit. How serious are these guys going to take us if we can't muster the soldiers necessary to take on even one more world semi-power (minor as it may be).

It's time to stand up against the egotistical arrogance of our leaders and say "enough!". As much as we'd like to impose our way of life on everyone else, we can't stand against the rest of the world and still maintain that way of life ourselves.

Everyone's feeling the cost of this war - with the loss of our loved ones, with the sad state of the economy (unless you're employed by a company that benefits from the war, e.g. Halliburton, or the petroleum industry), and with the loss of personal freedoms due to the increased threat of really-pissed-off enemies who see us as a threat to their way of life.

Now's not the time to start new wars. Let's finish the ones we've already started. And then see if we can make peace as easily as we can make war. Now that would be a worthy accomplishment.