No terrible idea ever left behind

Bubblehead: Thanks for your concern. Actually, we drove to Seattle on friday, through the storm. Quite an adventure in our Subaru Forester (with no chains) which performed like a champion. Coming home early sunday morning was even more fun. With less than a quarter of a tank of gasoline we discovered that all the pumps in the University District were out of gas. We decided we could probably get to Isaquah (sp.?). On the way we tried to pull off somewhere else where they advertised gas. It was completely dark (no electricity). We could not find our way back on the freeway. We found a hidden police car who agreed to lead us back onto the freeway. Arrived in Isaquah - no electricity and therefore no open gas stations. We found a grocery store with a generator. They told us to go back towards Seattle and exit at a certain place where we could finally find gas. We did, although we barely made it, and it all ended happily ever after. The storm in Seattle was bad, bad. I think they still have no electricity in Isaquah. The moral of the story: do not have a son attending the U. of W. during the winter if you live out of state and have to bring him home for the holidays.

The Bush/Cheney bunch seem to have a passion for really terrible ideas and never seem to let one pass them by. Attacking Afghanistan, where no invader has ever succeeded, was probably not a clever idea (however justified it may have been). So let that one pass. A pre-emptive attack on Iraq was a truly terrible idea. Pulling troops out of Afghanistan to do so was a terrible idea. Disbanding the Iraqi army was a terrible idea. Allowing widespread looting was a terrible idea. Having too few troops to control Iraq after the initial attack was a terrible idea. Allowing Halliburton and other war profiteers to get non-competitive contracts was a terrible idea, as was not allowing Iraqi contractors to participate in the rebuilding. Completely destroying Falluja, especially with illegal weapons, was a terrible idea. Torturing captives was a terrible idea. Illegal spying on people was a terrible idea. Spending enormous sums of money that we do not have was a terrible idea. Lying to bring about a pre-emptive war was a terrible idea. Continuing to lie about how well it is going is a terrible idea. The latest terrible idea is to send in even more troops when it is already widely agreed there is no military solution. As there can be no military solution, refusing to enter into discussions with other affected countries is also a terrible idea. Expecting some kind of minor "surge" of military activity to accomplish anything other than more American and Iraqi deaths is an idea that goes even beyond terrible. How anyone, especially someone like Harry Reid, to support this idea is simply beyond my comprehension.

Other than all that I guess things are going pretty well in Iraq and environs. Bush will soon announce his plan for Iraq (four years too late) and the Middle East. I would not get your expectations up above the level of none whatsoever. In the meanwhile, while Bush continues to diddle, more of our troops and many more Iraqis will die. Oh well, we are spreading democracy throughout the Middle East. Bush doesn't have to worry about the judgement of history because he will be dead (along with several hundreds of thousands of others who perished for no reason other than his idiocy). In the idiom of my childhood, things are just going "swell."