Ok, I'm making one post about politics and then it's back to knitting. Obviously, as much as 51% of you out there will disagree with me, but since it's my blog, I can feel fine and dandy with saying my peace.

First of all, thank you to all who gave their moral support, yesterday. It's good to hear from my kindred souls. To those of you who expressed your opposition, I appreciate your candor and wholeheartedly support and respect your right to disagree.

I would like to make a couple of comments here, since at least one of you left no means of contacting you offline. Firstly, I feel it's disingenuous to try to state that Bush is somehow more able to "protect" us from terrorists than Kerry. Whether you like it or not, Kerry does have a strong military background. Let's put aside the rhetoric. Forget what one side has tried to say about the other. If you were to simply receive the resume of each, and look at his accomplishments during the Vietnam war, Kerry would appear to be the stronger candidate.

Personally, to me, it's even more heartening, that Kerry served his duty in Vietnam, could see the atrocities, and come home and report them. Please note that our soldiers are now taking the fall for the Abu Gharib abuses because none of them came forward and reported what was happening. Our military has a policy that soldiers are not permitted to commit crimes, even when commanded to do so. It is up to the Commander in Chief to make orders clear and provide sufficient training so that it is clear what is right and wrong. At that point, you can hold men and women responsible for their judgment. It is apparent that soldiers were not clearly guided in this way and given orders to do what was necessary to get information out of prisoners.

Regarding Saddam, once again, I think it is disingenuous to talk about how much better his country is now. Kim Jong Il has posed a more imminent threat, he has weapons of mass destruction, and is easily as cruel to his people and neighbors. Of course, Iraqis deserve freedom and the world had been working in that direction. But, attacking their country, unilaterally, using intelligence sources that were known to be flawed (the one they used, had the nickname "curveball"), gives the impression of an ulterior motive at our soldiers expense.

Our Commander in Chief did not properly plan for this war, thinking it'd be easy and over quickly. Now, we are losing our men and women and we have not made ourselves any safer. We wouldn't have the resources, now, if we did need to fight a war elsewhere, and our allies continue to pull their support. We are safest when the world's powers try to work together and have a goal for peace, not war. Call me a hippy. Call me a liberal. I'm fine with both.

Feel free to comment as you see fit. I'm going to try to make this the last political post, but that doesn't mean that comments can't be political.

Oh, and since it is a knitting blog:

I've knit a few inches of the bottom of Bella P.