Unrealistic Expectations

From the Daily Iowan

"Recently, in a forum to discuss federal support for student financial aid, the vote of Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, for supplemental funding toward Iraq came under scrutiny. The UI Antiwar Committee was shut out of the meeting except for a statement to the freshman representative saying the vote raised "serious questions" about his true commitment to education. While pro-education sentiments are admirable, and this Editorial Board - like the majority of Americans - supports the measured withdrawal of troops from Iraq, we cannot support the way in which some antiwar protesters continually place unrealistic expectations upon lawmakers or believe immediate removal of troops will solve everything."

This is the future of our country speaking.

What is a "realistic expectation" to ending an unjust war? How many more soldiers, innocent civilians, and others have to be sacrificed for our moderation? The DI editorial staff has got it wrong. We need to be demanding of our lawmakers because they are the ones we elect to solve problems not exacerbate them.

This and there is a cause and effect to our defense spending. It is true that we are up to our eyeballs in national debt, but think about where most of the debt comes from and you'll quickly conclude it is due largely to building and maintaining the largest military arsenal ever assembled in the history of the world. This does have an effect on the tuition University of Iowa students pay. So why is it inappropriate to point out the cost of our military, again?

With regard to extracting ourselves from Iraq, I do agree with the DI on one issue, there is no good way to do it--by ourselves. And that has been the problem from the start. We failed to use diplomacy in an effective manner then and we have lost the all important political capital to do it now. The way forward in Iraq is to let regional diplomacy work, to offer aid to repair Iraq's infrastructure, and most importantly, to redeploy our troops as quickly as we can to where they best can be effective.

Supporting this is not too much to demand of our nation's leaders or those who are the future of our country.