The war in Iraq is a sack of s@#!

Yea, the Iraqi celebratory brigade marches onward into the sunset as more military personnel (that's people, in case you were wondering) get maimed and killed, and for what? To catapult G.W. into the history books? What kind of lunacy are we, as a nation, willing to accept from our government? Apparently any kind at all. Including the useless slaughter of thousands of our brave soldiers, not to mention the innocent Iraqi bystanders who get caught in the crossfire.

Useless? Hell yes! What are we doing trying to mold Iraq into a mirror-image of the United States — at least to the degree that Iraqis can understand the principles of democracy — which, I fear, is far short of our own feeble grasp on the concept of government FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE.

I'm appalled that half the electorate actually buys the bulls@!* our nitwit president spews, and even more disgusted with the news media in Washington, D.C. A bunch of dimwitted chowder-heads who haven't a clue about ANYTHING realistic or reasonable, but who are experts at sucking up to the administration and spreading the dung they're spoon-fed over the land. Moronic penal-farm growers and harvesters.

And the harvest? Well, we're seeing it everyday as the body count rises and Rumsfeld and his ilk keep stoking the fires of fear and hatred — much the same as our real enemies. And whatever happened to Osama bin Laden anyway? When's the last time G.W. (Dubya, as Trudeau likes to say) even mentioned that mass murderer's name, let alone refer to any effort at apprehending him? And why isn't the media, that bastion of hard-bitten news hounds who sniff out corruption and raise the hew and cry when it smells the taint of ill-conceived, nefarious plots doing its job? It appears that the reporters on the presidential beat are merely cheerleaders for the administration, and the one's who don't tow the line appear to disappear quickly from the White House press corps. Hmmmm?

I cannot grasp the ethical, moral or political value of taking over a country like Iraq under the premise of democratizing the populace; a populace that's never known democracy, is suspicious of democracy, at best, and hates America and all things American, at worst.

It's as if we're determined to cram a square peg into a round hole, no matter that it cannot be done, logic and reason be damned!

Oh well. It's our nation and I suppose we can dump it into the fire if we want to or, probably closer to the truth, if we don't care to uphold our end of the deal and carry some of the weight that accompanies OUR OWN democratic system in order to protect our freedom-loving society (we are a freedom-loving society, aren't we?).

The sheer arrogance of this misguided experiment in militarily-imposed "freedom" baffles me. The fact that G.W. gets away with empty platitudes and stuttering utterances that lead nowhere in light of the very real suffering that he's causing both our military personnel (could be your neighbor's husband or wife — could be yours) and the people of Iraq is beyond all understanding. FUBAR! That's the only adequate phrase, albeit foreshortened acronym, that describes our current status as a nation in THIS world. So thanks to Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and the people who brought you Enron, Bechtel, Schlumbergé, Disney World and Purina Dog Chow for a very merry war, indeed!

Our political currency — as well as our REAL currency — is beginning to swirl around the toilet bowl toward that dark oblivion known as obliteration, and the emperor fiddles a vacuous, discordant tune.
Meantime, life goes on. The sellers are selling, the buyers are buying and the poor continue to starve as the rich pick their bones. Ahem. Well, I guess that's the status quo du jour. Check out Ben Sargent's (sp?) editorial cartoon and ponder, if you will, its meaning. After that, have a Merry Christmas for God's sake, or we'll kill ya!

Ben Sargent's wit