Saturday, November 04, 2006

approaching deadline

The days keep slipping away closer to election day, closer to the moment when I squeeze into a booth, pull the curtain shut and pull the levers.
Connecticut is considered a crucial state for public feeling on Iraq.
I'm not sure if Ned Lamont will win.
I know Connecticut will hurt if we lose Lieberman. He's been able to deliver on environmental issues because of his tight relationships with the Republicans.
We're facing increasing pressure from energy and utility companies to turn Long Island Sound into a stockyard for liquified natural gas and transmission pipelines.
The Sound is congested enough as it is with marine traffic, fisheries and cargo ships.
Then there's Iraq. I hesitate to vote over one issue.
Yanking the troops out of Iraq seems to be a concession to violent thugs who seem hellbent on forcing Iraq into civil war whether the US is there or not.
Mercy for our troops will be merciless to the civilians.
I wonder if there is any hope for Iraq?
If I vote for Ned, will he just push to pull the troops out and then forget about the Middle East. Will our nation turn within as Iraqis cannibalize their own country.
There seems to be no right answer, no absolute right way to go.
My heart goes out to the American soldiers coming back maimed from a war they never really understood.
I wonder how they will vote.
Will they vote for Lamont to pull their brothers in arms out of the fire?
Or will they vote for Lieberman to make sure that the Americans soldiers who died in Iraq's sands died to make that nation's people free?