Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Unrealistic expectations will take more American lives

Unrealistic expectations will take more American lives

Those who stand to make the most money manipulate perception of reality for capital gain

There is no way on God's earth a new Iraqi force will be ready, willing, or able within "months".

"It will be very unusual if we were not able to secure security within the next year. The multinational force [in Iraq], as much as its presence is needed, will need
over time replaced by indigenous Iraqi forces, and we expect that to happen. It [will be] a matter of months before the Iraqi security forces are properly trained and equipped. So hopefully before the end of year - and certainly before the elections for the new constitutional assembly - we should have Iraqi security forces by and large in a position to take greater responsibility for security in their own country."


--Dr. Ali Alawi, Minister of Trade

[LINK]


Prepare for the "very unusual".

Don't miss the Rebuild Iraq trade show and don't forget your civic lessons.

We Need A Hero

We Need A Hero

It isn't going to be George W. Bush. Someone needs to sit down and have a serious chat with David Brooks.

First, Brooks claims our national creed states that "our creator has endowed all human beings with the right to liberty, and the ability to function as democratic citizens".

"Ability to function as democratic citizens"? Isn't Mr. Brooks taking God-given liberty to revise old Tom Jefferson's words? When Jefferson wrote "..they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation"...the word "they" didn't mean to give future Americans the right to impose undue influence on another nation's idea for independence!

Brooks says: "Bush is putting this tenet of our national creed to a fearsome test in the worst possible circumstances."

In other words, Bush is imposing freedom on the Iraqis in the name of the American way. The very words impose and freedom are impossible philosophical bedfellows. We had a chance to create the conditions for freedom in Iraq. That's as much as we will ever be able to do, in righteousness.

I still recall, however, how the American people were LIED TO (bald-faced)about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. Before the pre-emptive strike, it was about the imminent threat to America. It was about WMDs. Lies are not honorable. This war was not waged in an honorable light.

While it may have been ultimately good for the Iraqis to be rid of Saddam Hussein, the war has done too much damage to the trust of the American people. Almost 800 American families have forever given up their sons and daughters for the imposition of freedom upon a people who never required or desired it from us.

Our American soldiers are heroes.

We need a leader who can match their courage, wit, and understanding of what it means to love your country with your last breath, if need be. That's what it means to be a hero.



Bush is not the hero we seek.

David Brooks says that if Bush succeeds, the Iraqis will "take responsibility for their future" as they begin to "regard Americans as necessary guests" and they will ultimately "feel they control their lives".

I wonder how it is David Brooks doesn't see that the Iraqis are already "taking responsibility for their future" in their obvious desire to expel Americans from their lands? How is it that Brooks doesn't see that Iraqis obviously have a strong desire to "control their own lives"?

Is he blind?

There is going to be a civil war in Iraq this summer. Many more American troops will have to die because of too many blind pundits and the chickenhawk leaders who make the word "freedom" their political whore.

The best thing that could happen for Bush (and our troops) is to have the new Iraqi interim government tell the U.S., come July 1st, to get out of their country.

People who blow themselves up and leaders who command their armies to storm into nations with bombs and guns always claim to know the 'truth' better than everybody else. They almost always claim to know what "God wants" or "what God said". None of them are acting in righteousness, which, in the end, is always love.

Using the words of the poet Hafiz, truth means having "profound courage to never relinquish love".

Let the Iraqis be the free people and the free nation God intended them to be.
It's what they want.

America is not God.

God is God.

_____________________________


The Diamond Takes Shape



Some parrots
Have become so skilled with
The human voice

They could give a brilliant discourse
About freedom and God

And an unsighted man nearby might
Even begin applauding with
The thought:

I just heard jewels fall from a
Great saint's mouth,

Though my Master used to say,

"The diamond takes shape slowly
With integrity's great force,

And from

The profound courage to never relinquish love."



Some parrots have become so skilled
With words,

The blind turn over their gold
And lives to caged

Feathers.


--'The Gift - Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master'
Translations by Daniel Ladinsky


The unaccountable Bush blames it on history

The unaccountable Bush blames it on history

"In the last 32 months, history has placed great demands on our country."

In the last 32 months, Bush has placed our country where she remains today. She is disgraced in the eyes of our allies after the Neocons barreled their way into convincing the soft-headed Mr. Bush to take America to unnecessary war.

History demands nothing.

History merely watches the sages and the fools.

Perhaps Mr. Bush will blame God next. After all, t'was God who whispered in his destiny-clad ears, yes?

What do I think of last night's speech, you ask? If you've noticed I've said nothing, you may already have your answer.

____________________


*Speaking of sages, NYCO says: "..it is such a time we live in, that mere adults come off as sages." Sad, yes?

WorldNetDaily helps launch plot to steal the election

Secession looming!

WorldNetDaily: Christians look to form 'new nation' within U.S.

"The plan initially calls for at least 12,000 Christians willing to be active in political campaigns to move to the Palmetto State. "

Pay close attention to who moves where in time for our lofty election coming up. Interstate redistricting? Can not these people play fair??

anonymoses

______________________


Good one, Dave. I've noticed public pleas for people to move to swing states to vote both GOP and Dem. Politics is such a dirty game. Unfortunately, the GOP always seems to know how to play the dirty games more efficiently.

About this secession news, perhaps Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson will become the President of the nation of South Carolina. Can you imagine? How rich!

The whole scenario is deliciously reminiscent of the secessions of the mid-nineteenth century when the argument was over slavery. Gays are the neo-slaves, I guess.

I wonder how many people would fight to the death in a bloody civil war while defending the cry- "Let my people marry!"?

Yesterday we had abolitionists.
Today we have abo-swish-inists.

The silliest (perhaps scariest) part is that our own President is one of these goofball fundamentalists.

Jude