Memories and Nightmares

As I recall, Bush invaded Afghanistan in his search for Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11, a search which has come up empty for the past five years to date. And then he invaded Iraq, which turned out to be a harder nut to crack. So he sent to Afghanistan for back-up troops to help out in Iraq.

Now we are told Iraq is said to be getting better, and possibly able to take care of itself. The Iraqis have hoped we’d go away for years. Though a possible success in Iraq is being touted by Washington, it is still tentative. Nevertheless, Afghanistan is going to hell again, so Bush is sending troops from Iraq back to Afghanistan, or at least those bound for Iraq to Afghanistan instead.


Sen. McCain has based his biography and his campaign on his personal courage in the War in Iran, with almost no mention of the courage of his fellow soldiers and prisoners in that war. And he has been applauded by his audiences more for his time in Iran than for any service he has contributed to the nation during his time in Congress. In addition, since war has worked so well for his personal prestige, his entire approach to the world is, and will be based upon the leadership of an empire to whom the rest of the world must defer. His statement that we are presently forced to buy oil “from people who don’t like us very much” is a telling example of his attitude toward the rest of the world, an attitude which we should seek to correct.


McCain’s selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as a runningmate was and is a truly frightening move against the very base of our Constitution. If he vetted her as little as is said, he himself is not ready to be president. If he didn’t know he was choosing an evangelical, he has unwittingly turned a very possible successor as president into a major threat to this country. And if he did know that she is an evangelical, he has gravely endangered this country by putting it under the control of an extremist sect.

In this connection, sincere nonbelievers have their own individual values, and they do not proselytize because their values are carefully developed by each individual and are valued as such. Yet they are precluded from running for high office.