Sunday, October 15, 2006

[1844 - Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher, born in Rocken, Prussia]

[1858 - John L. Sullivan, Boxing Hall of Famer, Heavyweight champion, born in Roxbury, Boston]

[1908 - John Kenneth Galbraith, economist, author, ambassador, born in Iona Station, Ontario, Canada]

[1946 - Herman Goering, Nazi, dies by his own hand while under Allied death sentence]

Tails They Win, Heads We Lose

Consider the costs of the Iraq war: twenty seven hundred of our young are dead, twenty thousand maimed and wounded, $360 Billion spent so far. No end is in sight to this outpouring of blood and treasure. Having grossly mislead us about the reasons for invading Iraq (remember the nonexistent WMD), the President next told us that the end justifies the means (the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power). Then he sang the song of ideological struggle between the good Christian nations of the West and the bad Islamic countries of the East. That tune may have worked to launch the crusades of the middle ages, but surely we must have learned something since then.

Now the President and his gang are out trying to frighten the public with the crazy notion that we are safer because we are fighting in the streets of Baghdad, and we dare not leave, lest we have to fight the bad guys in the streets of Saint Louis. Meanwhile, all the US intelligence agencies say that we are less safe as a result of the Iraq war, and two thirds of the Iraqi people want us out of their country immediately and believe that the killing of our troops is justified. One can only hope that an Iraqi leader emerges from the political process who is strong enough to kick us out of his country before too many more American lives are tragically lost there.

William's Whimsical Words:

The Tree of Liberty must have good soil, sunshine, and careful tending to put down strong roots; even then it may take centuries to attain full growth.

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