Ellen sent the following quote that I would like to share:

I've been reading The Things They Carried - a novel - from Tim O'Brien
about the Vietnam War. He was opposed to the war, but served 69-70, was
at My Lai. This struck me - thought I would share . . .

"A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage
virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men
from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do
not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if
you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the
larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and
terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue.
As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by
its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil."

Do you think we're stuck in Iraq until their government is up and
running? Despite recent revelations about WMD and such, I hear no one
suggesting we withdraw.

Ellen


Well, Ellen,

The assessment that I buy into is that the same one that George Bush Sr. held to. It is better to have a greedy, despicable, controllable, dictator in place in Iraq than a rabid fundamentalist Islamic State with legions that hate you and are willing to die to go to heaven and get their 40 or 70 or however many virgins. That option has been taken away by the ill conceived actions of the very short sighted and self deluded people who have momentarily gained control of the resources of the most powerful nation on earth.

Our options stand as follows:

1. Remain in place until the increasing talley of military deaths forces us to withdraw unilaterally and accept the civil war that will eventually occur.

2. Leave now and accept the civil war that will inevitably occur.

3. Bend over for and beg forgiveness of the UN, convince them to come in and oversee the establishment of a civil government that will last until the civil war that will eventually occur.

4. Accept a fundamentalist Islamic government now.

I hope I am wrong. Does anyone else have a crystal ball they want to look into?

Steve