Anti-War Speech at UT Pan Am

So I've been invited to speak at University of Texas - Pan America as a representative of Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out. It's not the first time I've done this. While I was in Japan, I spoke twice in Tokyo and once each in Nagoya, Hiroshima, and Osaka. The last time was at a huge peace rally in Tokyo - my audience was 20,000! If it hadn't been raining so hard, we would have had over 100,000. This is only my third time to speak in Texas. I participated in a panel discussion at UT San Antonio. That was pretty good. Then on Memorial Day here in San Antonio, I gave a short speech, "No one wins a war," at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial downtown.
I've worked hard to prepare for this. I've read several books, learned a little more about the Rio Grande Valley and the UT Pan Am campus. I refreshed my memory on the intelligence community (they want me to talk about that, too).
The thing I had to think about most is what they might want to hear and what I want to tell them. They aren't necessarily the same thing. Still, I'll have a sympathetic audience - we all want this war to end.
I'm also going to speak only from an outline instead of from a prepared text. That's a departure for me, but a necessary one. I need to be more professional in my speaking skills. Up till now, I've simply written powerful messages, then read them to my audience. Not any more.
Well, I have a little more research to do. Wish me luck!

War, Antiwar, and right-wing idiots

So there are these people (I refrain from calling them idiots only because I know it's more like they have blinders on) from my high school who really, honestly believe that we should invade Iran and that we have the military capability to do so. They've even pulled out freakin' road maps to make their case. See, I hate this war. Well, to be honest, I now oppose war in all its forms for any reason. But I'm a retired US Army NCO. Desert Storm was my epiphany - America loves war, uses soldiers to achieve imperial objectives, and it only takes one incompetent president to make the most powerful military machine in history a world threat. Anyway, to the particulars of Iran. These things are now obvious: the US Army and Marines are currently strained to the breaking point while fighting two wars simultaneously. The only reason we keep enough soldiers to fight these wars is that we bribe them with insane amounts of money. We pay 5K, 10K or sometimes more to get people to come in, then pay bonuses up to 50K to keep them in. If we start a third war, how much will we have to pay to exhausted soldiers? We also know that Iran is larger and has a bigger population, so a war with Iran would essentially double (conservatively) the size of the conflicts we're fighting. The US economy is also strained to the breaking point paying for the current wars. Even if I were coldblooded enough to say our military could handle the new war, I would say the US simply can't afford it. Even W is now calling for a balanced budget (translation: "OK, maybe I HAVE pushed the deficit spending thing a bit too far."). Finally, anyone we send into Iran will die. It will be the most embarrassing, tragic loss for the US military in its history. Vietnam will look like a raging success in comparison. And yet, the Bush administration continues to use inflammatory language towards Iran, almost begging them to start something. This is playground bully diplomacy, but in this case, it's the bully who just isn't ready for the fight.