My speech for the local Republican Party

First of all id like to thank all of you for the opportunity to be here. A lot of my fellow soldiers who have come home havent been able to share their thoughts and feelings. So again I am thankful for the opportunity.


While I was deployed I was fortunate enough to be stationed in Kuwait. Which by and large was a pretty safe place to be. At the same time, I was a truck driver so I was constantly driving on convoys into Iraq. So I guess I got to see the best and worst of both worlds. In Kuwait, the people I met were sincerely thankful to all Americans for coming to their aide during desert storm when Saddam had invaded their tiny country. And when you see the news about Iraq, you see a lot of people saying they could be heading to a civil war largely due to some religious differences. However it doesnt have to be like that. Kuwait for example is also a Muslim country. They also have both Shiites and Sunni. Yet if I were to go up to a Kuwaiti on the street and ask them if they were Sunni or Shiite they would probably be offended. They dont really have any problems with each other. They can be compared to say Baptists and Methodists. Same religion, but a few differences here and there. So there is still hope that Iraq can work out their differences and come to a common ground of understanding. There are just so many problems in Iraq due to mistrust. While Saddam was in power we all know what he did to the Shiites and how he coveted his Sunni people. Now that Saddam is out of the picture, the Shiites are holding mos of the power as the large majority in every main political office and population. The sunni now fear retribution from the Shiites now that they are in power. So they act out on their fears with bombings and terrorism. Which is why we have all the chaos that exists there now. Its really hard for me to say what I think will become of Iraq in the future. I do know that I hope it doesnt take a civil war to work itself out. If that happened id feel like the 2000+ soldiers and countless Iraqis that have been lost would have been in vain.

I am fortunate to have had my prayers answered and come back exactly the way I left both mentally and physically. Far too many soldiers cant say the same. Although Ive had some close calls and actually seen what kind of damage real combat can do, I made it out safe and sound. I really couldnt ask for much more.


There are times when I do wonder what its all for. Is it to free the Iraqis of an oppressive dictator? Okay, weve done that and now Saddam Hussein is on trial. Is it to get justice for the horrendous acts that were done on September 11th? Will that ever really happen? If we find and bring everyone to justice who was involved in any way, will that bring back the lives already lost? Will adding more lives to that list make anyone feel better? Even if Iraq does become a free democratic society that will not bring back a persons lost loved one. Of course, there is always the threat of terrorism, since it only takes one man, woman or even in some cases a child to commit and act of terrorism. Sadly, I just dont see terrorism ever eliminated. Slowed down some and scaled back maybe, but I dont think this war is going to do that to the effect we have been led to believe.


While I am speaking about our country. Maybe instead of spending billions of dollars to help other countries out we should use that money to help our own citizens. Unfortunately, thats not the way the chain works. More people can make money through manufacturing and services provided during a time of war than they can helping fellow Americans help each other. Even though our healthcare problems continue, our homeless population continues to grow, gaps between the upper and lower class widen every year. The environment continues to get worse .We as a whole continue to ignore these problems. Not realizing these problems wont just go away. We should stop relying on others so step up and do something. We need to take actions into our own hands. Its time to stop talking and start doing.


My last thoughts are on war in general. Weve all heard that sometimes you have to fight for peace. If thats truly the case, then when does the war end? When does the peace actually begin?