Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Durbin Cries, Iraqis Die, Afghanistan Fries, and Bush Continues to Lie

While Senator Dick Durbin (from my state) breaks down in tears on the Senate floor, woefully decrying his remarks about Guantanamo Bay, and the insurgents poke a finger in the eye of the Administrations assertions that their daily carnage is winding down, the war in Afghanistan, which was supposed to be almost at an end, is flaring anew.

Is the Taliban coming back after having regrouped, refinanced, and gained new recruits from the ranks of those Muslims who now see America as a defiler of their sacred text? Does anyone with a rational functioning mind, the ability to use deductive reasoning and foresight, really believe that the ongoing debate surrounding our little Cuban holiday spot is doing no harm to America in the minds of those who need very little reason to do us harm? Even naiveté has it bounds?

Barely reported on the evening news cast(s) is the fact that all over Afghanistan, the war is flaring up, but it is particularly brutal in the south and east of the country where scores on both sides continue to die. Just yesterday the Pentagon reported that five American soldiers were wounded in fierce fighting in the southern Afghanistan. Talk of 11-hour gun battles does not sound like a situation that is well in hand from a military standpoint. How much longer is going to take to stabilize a country that would have been a done deal, if not for the lack of U.S. troops, concentration of effort, and adequate attention from the Bush Administration?

In hindsight (and foresight for that matter) how smart was it to invade Iraq with the job in Afghanistan incomplete? Now we seem to be fighting a two front war with insurgents whose numbers are seemingly limitless; there are after all over a billion practitioners of Islam.

Pretty soon Iraq is going to run out of cars to blow up; how long before the insurgent start importing them pre-rigged with explosives, if they are not already doing so?

The Bush Administration has lost all creditability with me and mine; the lies, half-truths, and just plain preposterous rhetoric that ooze from the White House on a daily basis make me ill. Do they (The Bushies) really believe half of the words that leach from their mouths like so much sludge from the Anicosta River? After Secretary Rice made a speech the other day in Egypt, on the importance of free, open and just elections, and opened the floor for questions, they all seemed to be about the desecration of the Muslim Holy Book. I wonder if her message got through? And Rice spent her time explaining how the U.S. respects all religions.

Actions, as they say, speak loader then words, and our action thus far when it comes to the treatment of those in Gito Bay send a very powerful message to the rest of the world: America and American are above the law; we believe in the rule of law, until it gets in the way of revenge and then, well, there is no rule of law. American life is sacred, all other life is well expendable, until we deem it worthy, and justice belongs to Americans; we are the law until further notice.

Anyone else feel as uncomfortable with the direction the "shining beacon on the hill" is headed. Our light seems considerable less bright, less comforting, less judicious, these days.