Truth or Dare, Election Ramifications Options

[Hellfighter]

As you know I'm not pro-Bush on his foreign policies... now that they've got some political clout, will the Dems now ante up and tell us how their influential input will reset the future course in Iraq? I'm thinking not. What are your solutions?

My idea>>> in 1 year US troops should pull out of Baghdad area- then let the Iraqi security forces get a taste for hardcore pulling of their weight. US troops can then deploy along the borders while Iraqi's get school of hard knocks training in large operations by themselves in that area of Iraq. With victories will come confidence. Iraqi citizens will also be getting what most of them hypothesize- US troops out supposedly means a de-escalation of terrorist attacks. As for secterian violence, I don't think US troops can stay in Iraq forever to police that. Sooner or later Iraqis have to sort that out by themselves alone.

[steel]

We can discuss the stock market and GDP but it doesn't change what's happening to middle and lower-class american's real money. In other words, isn't it true that whether each of us consider the economy up or down really boils down to the old addage, "Where you stand depends on where you sit?"

So that, personally, I make well above the average annual salary. Yet I do not make enough to have ever gotten a Bush tax cut. My company has not given raises in 6 years, yet every normal household expense has increased. Every year, my medical insurance benefits have decreased while the amount I have to kick in to have them has increased. I'm nearing retirement, yet my company has now abolished the pension plan as well as retirement medical insurance. My 401K is worth half what it was 10 years ago, even though I have my contribution to it maxed out.

My friends and family, most of whom have a much lower household income and kids still in school are feeling the stress of all this much worse than I am. And they are worried about losing their jobs and very few jobs of equal pay available. I don't know how they are holding things together, honestly. I see the stress of it in their faces and hear it in their voices everyday.

In our personal pocketbooks, the economy is much worse than it was 10 years ago. The stock market being up and so forth bring a ray of hope that perhaps things may change for the little guy, but so far, we're simply not seeing it.

As for the war in Iraq, everyone's waiting on the Baker report, both dems and reps. That's the right thing to do at this point. And both dems and reps know there has to be a change, some way to reduce American involvement while not adding to the destabilization of the area any further. The issues are very complicated and so will be the solutions. Hellfighter I agree with most everything you have said about this. And the bottom line is that none of our elected officials are going to be able to put this in a neat 30-second sound-bite for the evening news.