BTW, good luck on your upcoming tour. I will keep you and your comrades in my prayers.

When I said Republicans seem willing to vote for party over principle I was talking about all of the Republicans who are willing to vote for party candidates other than Paul. An examination of their positions and records I think will show that other than Paul they all have abandoned some long standing principles that the Republican Party stood for in the past.

For that matter why trust any politician. They are thieves, they are liars, and when they aren’t kissing babies, they are taxing their lollipops. We all know that the only time a politician lies is when their lips are moving.

I don’t have any reason, other than faith in Fred, to believe that he will be any better than El Presidente Jorge. However, I have more faith in Fred than I do in anyone else, at this point. (At least he isn’t Rudy, we know he doesn’t have the balls to do anything about it)

In my opinion we are very close to being able to effect a troop draw-down in Iraq. From what I am hearing from the guys on the ground, we may be able to significantly reduce troop levels over the next year.

Nobody wants the US to be in Iraq forever. At the time time, “stay the course” is a euphemism for “We will adjust our strategy as the enemy adjusts their’s; and I am not about to tell the enemy, on CNN what our plans might be.”

If you look at this kind of thing historically, we are still have bases in Germany, Korea, and Japan. It is not unreasonable to expect some kind of presence in the middle east for at least the next fifty years.

I’m not sure how you can say that having a stable Afghanistan and Iraq are not in American interest. We have seen what a safe haven for terrorists can do to American interests.

You said: “I cannot support any candidate that is willing to leave the Iraqi and Afghanistan people, and democratically elected governments with their flapping in the breeze.”

Interesting mindset. My #1 priority is protecting American interests, not those of others. You rightly said that hindsight is 20/20, but that doesn’t mean that the vision of the future has to by myopic. Neither of us can rightly say whether violence will increase or decrease if we left Iraq.

As for Fred Thompson, do you honestly think he has the balls to fight and implement his immigration plan? Fred is a nice enough guy, but what makes you think he is any different that Jorge Bush when it comes to immigration? I’ll leave the war issue alone, but I don’t think Fred has much more of a plan than “stay the course for ever and ever amen”.

Don, I disagree with you that people are voting party over principal.

1) Since the party hasn’t come out with a nomination yet, it’s too early to say that.
2) I am not making my choice based on that the party is saying. I am making my choice based on the issues that are most important to me.

For me, the two main issues are the GWoT, and Immigration/Homeland Security.

While I like part of what Ron Paul says on Immigration, I cannot fully agree with him. If I remember correct, Paul wants no immigration in the US. None, Nada, Zilch, Zero. I am for illegal immigration quotas to be increased, not removed entirely.

On the GWoT, Ron Paul and I couldn’t be father part.

My third consideration would be Pro-Gun Rights, which is why I won’t support Rudy.

It seems that many Republicans are now willing to vote for party over principle.

On the other hand it’s refreshing to see so many average Alabamians who are willing to pay their own filing fee and qualify as candidates pledged to support Paul. The Republican Party has obviously lost touch with the very voters who could help bring the party back into a position of power in Washington.

Hindsight is always 20/20. If Clinton hadn’t gutted the military or downsized our human intel capacity; or if Bush hadn’t “rushed to war”; or if this, or if that… it’s all hindsight and really has no bearing on the situation as it stands now.

Sure, we should learn from it, but that doesn’t mean that we just pop smoke and abandon the people we set out to help in the first place.