C. GATSBY'S Weblog: "you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free. John 8:32

I read with amusement that some writers claim that all our Founding Fathers were Christians. Probably these same people also believe Betsy Ross made the first United States’ flag.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Ethan Allen were not Christians but deists. Deists typically reject supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and assert that God does not intervene with human life and the laws of the universe. Most Deists reject the claim of Jesus' divinity, unlike Christians who assert Him as the Son of God.

Jefferson, who wrote his own version of the New Testament, deleting Jesus‘ miracles and any notion that Jesus is the Son of God, was not an evangelical nor a deeply pious person. He firmly believed in the separation of Church and State as did all the Founding Fathers.

George Washington, our first president, stated: "I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation, respecting religion, from the Magna-Charta [Constitution] of our country."

General Petraeus declared before Congress that American troops would have to remain in Iraq for years to come because Iraq is unable to provide security by itself, which was one of Bush’s benchmarks for his so-called surge.

Six weeks prior to the 2004 Presidential election, this same General, Petraeus, who by the way was in charge of training and equipping Iraq’s security forces, wrote and op-ed article, claiming “tangible progress” in Iraq and how the Iraqi forces were “developing steadily.” Petraeus’ appraisal, which helped swing some voters, has since proved to be false.

Gen. George W. Casey, Jr., the chief of staff of the Army and General Petraeus’s predecessor, contradicted his underling’s testimony before Congress. Casey stated recently at a Government Executive magazine event that Bush’s surge had produced “a temporary tactical effect” and expressed disbelief that Iraqi leaders would overcome differences.

Let’s face reality. Bush and some military officers are more concerned with spinning then in telling the truth. Nearly 3800 American soldiers have died, and over 100,000 Iraqi women and children have perished in Bush’s quagmire. Americans deserve the truth and not more lies or spinning from their president and/or military officers.

The truth is that there exists no forceful reason why America should ever have invaded Iraq in the first place, and definitely none that can be connected to the September 11^th attacks. It’s time to put an end to Bush’s and General Petraeus’ “staying the course” in Iraq.

BY Christian Gatsby

Bush, Cheney, and his generals continue to paint a rosy picture of Iraq while ignoring the facts.

Let’s examine the hard facts of Bush’s Iraq War.

Currently, $333 million a day, $14 million an hour, $231,000 a minute and $3,850 a second is spent on Bush’s Iraq War. The number of U.S. troops in Iraq is now at a record high - 168,000. The cost of the war is expected to increase regardless of reductions in troop levels by next summer.

2.2 million Iraqis fled from their homes and sought refuge elsewhere as Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites compete for domination in their provinces.

Currently, 60 Iraqi civilians die each day (as a result of American negligence, insurgents, and the civil war). Over 100,000 innocent Iraqi have been killed since Bush’s invasion. Presently, about 3 Americans die each day in Iraq.

The Iraqi government has little control over its country, with tribal leaders exerting control over their provinces. The Iraqi government has failed to achieve most of the benchmarks Bush laid out in his January 2007 speech.

Its time to stop “staying the course” as endorsed by Bush, General Petraeus, and the republicans. The democrats must apply immediate and consistent pressure and change course in Iraq and terminate Bush’s open-ended commitment to Iraq.

BY Christian Gatsby

President Bush, who in past stated that Iraq was “no Vietnam” or “quagmire,” recently invoked comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam.

Now, Gen Petraeus, the fourth commander of American forces in Iraq in less than five years, appeared before Congressional committees, much like Gen Westmoreland did at the height of the Vietnam War. Both utilized brightly colored, bar-graphed charts to impress congressional delegations with the metrics of "progress" in his war and that we are winning.

Petraeus, like Westmoreland before, emphasized “body counts,” “insurgents killed and/or captured,” and provinces pacified. Enthusiastically pointing to the numbers like Westmoreland did nearly 40 years ago, Petraeus’s message is: We’re winning! I have the numbers to prove it. However, someone forgot to tell the Iraqis.

Bush and Petraeus, like President Johnson and Westmoreland during Vietnam, continue to state, contrary to facts, that insurgent attacks are rapidly declining and that the insurgents are dwindling in numbers.

It’s been thirty years since America’s dramatic retreat form Vietnam. America lost the war because she failed to gain domestic and broad international support. America’s leadership was overly optimistic about their high-tech military machine, generals, and idealism only to be drawn slowly into the enemy’s conflict leaders and generals did not understand or provide adequate preparation. Now, Bush has repeated these same mistakes.

We lost over 58,000 Americans in Vietnam before reality set in with President Nixon and his generals. How many more Americans will die in Iraq before realism sets in with Bush and Petraeus?

by Christian Gatsby