Hand Slapping Forehead

Ok. We went in to Iraq because it had WMD's, and could have passed them off to terrorists, and Al Qaeda-related terrorists were in Iraq, and one even treated at a Baghdad hospital. Or maybe none of that was true, but that doesn't matter because we went into Iraq to establish democracy, which, beacon-like, would cause a message of hope and peace to spread through the Middle East. You see, it's democracy -- what the PEOPLE want -- that's important. That's why we're in Iraq. Except we're also mostly there because Al Qaeda is there, and if we don't stop them there, we'll have to fight them here. And if we pull out it will give Al Qaeda a huge victory. But if the Iraq government tells us to leave, we'll leave. But if 71% of its people, and a majority of its parliament tell us to get out, we won't leave. And if 70% of the people in the U.S., and a majority of its Congress want the U.S. to get out, we won't. Get it? Because it's about spreading DEMOCRACY. It's all about what the people want.

The War is Lost

Why anyone fails to understand the absolute correctness, the clarity, the truth, of Harry Reid's statement that "the war is lost," is beyond me. Everything this administration says and does fits precisely within the analogy of the gambling addict. The addict, after having racked up huge losses, always comes crawling around looking for more money, because losing would be "catastrophic" and because the only chance of "winning" can be had by continuing to play. Of course, the sober among us realize that the only winning strategy is to leave the table, because we know the house always wins. And the press and those who let out a collective gasp that Harry Reid said to the addict that he'd lost and it was time to go home are the worst enablers in history.

Abeer Qassim al-Janabi

One day, when my emotion for her recedes to a coping level where I can begin to even think about her life, let alone her death (and my emotion has not receded a whit in more than a year since I learned of her fate), I will write a song for Abeer, the girl from Mahmoudiya.