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Mark this day on your calender, I was WRONG!

I gotta' tell you, it's been awhile since I've really been moved by anyone's diary.

Not surprisingly Disco is the source. Every now and then he'll say something, or have a few updates where the guy just displays such brilliance it's scary.

Enough about that, while reading his latest views on 9/11, and responding to the critism he's been getting on that, I've been given a moment to reflect on how far my views on the Iraq war has come.

As some of you may remember Disco was involved in the debate thing I did where I pitted someone with a political leftist, to a conservative.

Back then I was for the war, and didn't really think folks like Disco were grasping the seriousness of the situation.

I really believed the government when they assured me Saddam had nuclear weapons. Why would they make that up, just to give us a reason to go in and take their oil? Sounds a little National Enquirer-y to me.

I also thought Saddam and Osama had each other on speed dial. That by invading Iraq we were fighting terrorism.

But by far the biggest reason I think I supported this war was to justify two very close, very important people to me who were sent there. One was 18 years old. Someone I knew since he was very young and was the closest thing I'll ever have to a younger brother.

I'd never admit that my political views would be swayed by certain things, but the human brain is an incredible tool. When you say goodbye to someone close to you knowing very well they may not come back, you automatically try to rationalize the situation. You would have to be incredibley cold-blooded to look at the reality of the situation. Which was the American people were asked to sacrifice their loved ones to topple a regime that has no proven ties to terrorism, and may have nuclear weapons.

I was inspired to share this information from Disco who went years without publicly talking about what happened to his wife on 9/11.

Despite the self promotion whore that I am, I was not about to jump up and down and talk about people I know that were off to Iraq. I hate it more than anything when people throw shit like that around so I wasn't about to mention it unless asked.

I don't know how many of you out there personally knew someone who went over there but I would like to give you a glimpse of what I've seen.

Saying goodbye to someone going off into an increbiley dangerous situation is freaking terrible. You all know this could very well be the last time you see this person alive.

My brother was over there for a little bit. We talked before he went and he was adamant it was the right thing to do. He was repeating the rhetoric that was popular at the time from such people who have never worn a uniform like Limbaugh and Hannity which was "There is no nuclear question in Iraq. We know they're there."

I hear what he was saying and believed him. Believed the president. I felt like rational person in all this because I didn't vote for Bush, didn't particularly like him, but supported the war.

When I saw people protesting the war, or even saying it was unjust, stupid, or wrong, how could I not be offended? If I was ever allow to believe that, and someone I knew came back in a body bag, I would forever feel responsible for not doing everything I could to stand in their way from going in the first place.

I'm babbling, I want to get to the point. When word got out that there were no weapons of mass destruction I was horrified. In my mind this was the biggest American blunder in recent memory.

But what was worse was the president's reaction to this. The fucking nerve of this guy to go on and on and on about weapons of mass destruction and then finding none. He clearly feels not one bit guilty over the fact that people who gave their lives did so because they believed they were saving the United States from an imminent threat of a nuclear missle.

How this guy could campaign for what turned out to be an incredible error and defend the mistake by saying "So what" is unforgivable.

So as a former supporter of this war I want to do what the president won't and apologize for backing the war. It was stupid, wrong, and we'll be lucky if we every live it down.

In conclusion I want to say that my brother, lifelong Republican, huge fan of Rush Limbaugh, thinks Ronald Reagan id God's other son, is voting for John Kerry.

My father almost went apeshit when he said that. When my father asked why would he, a conservative, vote for the most liberal senator in the senate, my brother gave an answer that summed it all up for me.

"Because I'll never, ever forgive Bush for sending us there."

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