The War. January 28, 2007

In a cynical moment I composed a letter to the editor that suggested the trial of Hussein be terminated quickly, with his being declared guilty and being sentenced to serve a life term as president of Iraq. While some may consider this cruel and unusual punishment, in fact the country would be in better shape today had he remained in office, warts and all. And warts he had -- nobody could overlook the brutal treatment of the Kurds and even his own countryman Shiites. Still, the total number of people dead and suffering injuries as a result of the American invasion would easily exceed whatever may have happened had Saddam Hussein remained in office.

How did it happen? Can anyone who saw it forget the pathetic performance of Colin Powell before the U.N., the one in which he showed reconnaissance photos of sites where trucks were parked. These, he described, were repositories of biological weapons, indicating that the Weapons of Mass Destruction, a phrase so loved by George W. Bush, were present in abundance. It took no persuading of GWB to push forward with an invasion to rid the world of this potential horror.

But it occurred to me at the time, and probably to many others (except those in influential positions in the Administration) to the ask the a simple question. Since the U.N. inspectors were still in Iraq, and had even been given broad powers to look into anything they felt was suspicious, why didn't Colin Powell just give them the locations of these truck sites and have them go take a look to see what kind of biological weapons might be present.

Of course, as we know now, there were no weapons, either biological or nuclear. It was simply a smoke screen to enable the president to start a war that he had been itching to begin ever since his Daddy had been rebuffed because of his inconclusive termination of the first Desert Storm war.

OK, the war started. There wasn't much we ordinary citizens could have done to stop it. But look at how it was conducted. Here is a mighty force taking control of a country containing a large but unspecified number of enemies -- mostly militant Islamic people bent on destroying the U.S. and all it stands for. And apparently it did have a modicum of control for a while. But who in all the history of warfare has ever heard of a victorious army taking charge and allowing the subjugated people to retain all their arms and even get more without difficulty? Most victors would declare it a capital offense to be caught bearing arms after a certain time. Could it be that GWB felt he could not risk offending the NRA by asking "innocent" civilians to put down their arms? Now, over 3000 U.S. dead soldiers, and a hundred thousand or more dead civilians might have a different opinion, could they but talk.

The Resignation of Carl Rove. August 16, 2007

Who has any doubt that Rove has jumped the sinking ship? What is the advantage to him of remaining with an admistration that is losing credibility to the point of having little or none at all? It must seem clear to all now that the new administration will be Democrat, so there is little to be gained in trying to bolster the Republican party -- it will lose the presidency, a lot of seats in the Senate and House, and probably all over the country in more minor offices. At this point, the Bush adminstration is merely waiting for the game to end -- like the closing minutes in a soccer game that has been lost. The difference with the political situation and a game is profound, however. When Bush leaves office, the entire responsibility for getting us out of the Iraq debacle will fall on the Democrats. If they do it successfully, and leave a decent democratic government (unlikely as this may be), the Bush can claim success for his policies that lead up to this. If it is a failure, a Saigon shutdown with the US appearing to leave with tail between legs, then Bush can simply blame it on the Democrats by saying -- well, if I'd had more time this never would have happened.