I’ve had it!  Enough with stupid Iraq debates!

Joe Scarborough Host, ‘Morning Joe' • Profile

I’m tired talking about Iraq. Let me rephrase that. I am tired of debating the war with stupid people.

Not just stupid people on the right or stupid people on the left. I don’t even discriminate against stupid people who get their news from Oprah or MTV.

I’ve just had it with stupid people in general. And as my family and friends know, I am patient to a fault. But no more — at least not on this issue.

My impatience has nothing to do with ideology. I have spoken with brilliant minds that believe our troops must leave Iraq before the next president is sworn into office. I have also listened as gifted thinkers have made a great case that we have no choice but to continue the fight for Iraq’s future until the last terrorist is dead.

My problem comes from nimrods who speak with great confidence while pontificating in sophomoric sound bites. Press these know-it-alls for details on Iraq or answers to the greatest foreign policy crisis in a generation and they mutter something about standing behind the troops or how the president is an idiot.

All very comforting for political hacks on the right and left but meaningless to the rest of us.

Threats to America
I gave a speech this weekend and was asked my opinion on Iraq. I suggested that the price to military readiness and the federal budget was too great to continue down a failed path indefinitely. After the speech I was confronted by a retired military officer who suggested that I was aiding terrorists, smoking dope and having sex with Jane Fonda. (Anyone who knows me will tell you I have never knowingly aided terrorists.)

After letting him finish his cross-examination, I drew a deep breath and explained what this gentleman should have already known.

The United States military is screwed if Washington forces it to keep 140,000 troops in Iraq.

Why? Four reasons: 1. Iran 2. Afghanistan 3. North Korea 4. Pakistan.

Most stupid people I engage have no idea just how dangerous Pakistan is to Americans’ safety. The world is one assassin’s bullet away from al-Qaida getting their hands on nuclear weapons, and no one in Washington would be surprised if Islamic terrorists killed President Pervez Musharraf tomorrow. 

What will happen when the president gets that call at 2 a.m.? What military options do we have with an Army more hollowed out than at any time since the Carter administration?

And what happens when we find out that Iran is months instead of years away from gaining a nuclear weapon? Do we sit back and let the same Islamic radicals who called for the destruction of the United States and Israel get nukes?

What do we do if most Americans start calling for military action against the state that has been the epicenter of terrorism since 1979? Well, if 140,000 troops are tied down officiating a civil war, then we don’t do a damn thing.

And what about Afghanistan? One of the most conservative Republican congressmen who had visited that country several times over the past few years pulled me to the side during this year’s State of the Union to tell me how we were losing the war in Afghanistan.

So do we stay the course in Iraq while the Taliban and al-Qaida rebuild in Afghanistan? And why is that? National pride? The domino theory? Because you don’t want the Times editorial page to be proven right?

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