Worth it?

Unarmed jogger runs into bank,
orders people on floor, jumps
counter, takes money, flees.

When Madeline Albright was Secretary of State, and the sanctions against Iraq had killed half a million (or more) Iraqi children, she was asked if it was worth it. She replied that it was. I thought at the time, and still do, this was the most monstrous and ghoulish statement I had ever heard from anyone, anywhere, under any circumstances. Of course she never explained exactly what "it" was.

This morning I gather Bush was giving a Press Conference. It took me a minute to get to the control to shut it off. During that minute I gather Bush was reporting that someone, an Iraqi I suppose, was telling him how things were better now. This raised for me a question. So what? So what if things are better now? Assume that this nightmare was over and we had "won." And assume that things in Iraq were far better than we could have ever expected. Would it have been worth it? A million or more Iraqis killed, two million or more displaced, almost 4000 American troops dead, 35 or 40 thousand more maimed for life, a trillion or more dollars wasted that could have been used here at home for universal medical care, education, rebuilding our own failing infrastructre, and so on. What would we have gained? At best, control over some oil that we could have purchased in the first place? We would have rebuilt a nation that was better off to begin with (even under Saddam) and was no threat to us in the first place. If Bush thinks this was worth it I believe he must be insane.

I am convinced that current American politics is insane. Consider that now someone has made a video of some children saying that Hillary trashed cookie making. Remember, she once said in answer to a question, "should I have stayed home and made cookies?" At worst all this does is make the obvious point that some things are more important than others, especially to different people. Does anyone actually believe that making cookies is more important than running for high public office? For President? For trying to establish universal health care? This in no way trashes cookie making, it merely says there are different priorities and that some are more important than others. Why anyone would dredge this up now and make a video of it indicates to me that our current political system is pathetic.

It seems that Mitt Romney just can't tell the truth about anything. It turns out that his claim that his father marched with Martin Luther King is false. There is no record of any such thing. It is obvious that Romney will tell any lie in order to get the nomination. What is worse, he's the leading candidate (although Huckabee, a bona fide Jesus freak, is coming up fast). This indicates to me, again, that our current political climate is pathetic.

When Alan Keyes was allowed to participate in the recent Brafia "debate" I assumed that he must have had the credentials (an office and staff in Iowa) whereas Kucinich did not. Apparently this was not the case. Keyes should no more have been allowed than Kucinich. Our current political system is pathetic.

LKBIQ:
"It is told that such are the aerodynamics and wing-loading of the bumblebee that, in principle, it cannot fly...If all this be true...life among bumblebees must bear a remarkable resemblance to life in the United States."