Let us assume for a moment that we actually did go to Iraq to take the battle to the terrorists, eliminate the WMD threat, and to free the Iraqi people from a brutal dictatorship. I know its a hard sell but bear with me for a minute. The question would still be a resounding WHY!?!?!?!?!

The Thousands Year War continues in the Middle East with much of the the same theological conflict, assassinations, and power struggles that have been going on since the beginning of time. Anyone not aware of this would be professing ignorance of the greatest historical documents ever assembled. I am of course talking about the Holy Bible. So our President who says he is a “devout Christian” has obviously not been paying attention, again. From Genesis to Revelations, the books are filled with violence, oppression, political aspirations, intrigue, you name it its in there. Not that I rely totally on the Bible as a historic fact, but I’m using something the neocons can’t dispute without blowing their cover.

Why would anyone think we can export our Western values and morals and harbor expectations that we could quickly pacify everyone with a Walmart in every ghetto? What kind of stooge would think that we could remove the only vestige of discipline (that would be Saddam) that the Iraqis have ever known and expect them all to line up for conversion to good old USA philosophy? Well obviously someone sold We the People on the concept and we bought it hook, line and sinker. Let it be known that I have never been nor will I ever be supportive of our country’s involvement in Iraq. Even Afghanistan though equally full of good intentions and ideals will result in the same quagmire. We are nothing short of occupiers and that will continue to fester and breed contempt. Since W was playing hooky from the Guard and obviously didn’t hang with any military types, the lessons of Vietnam are lost on him and his boyz.

The argument that we stay and win is lunacy. If you expect “Victory” to be when they all line up in the new downtown Walmart, forget it, it ain’t gonna happen. Not in our lifetimes anyway. Let’s face it, the various factions of Islam are going to continue to be at war with each other just like they have been for all of recorded history. Only the various dynasties and dictatorships of Egypt, Rome and the Ottomans have been able to brutally force a brittle and fragile truce. Even now the demographics of a country provide majority populations as with Saudi Arabia (Sunni) and Iran (Shia). I will leave it to you to compare the methodology that either of these countries now employ to keep the peace. Throw their mutual admiration for the Israelis into the equation and you have a real mess.

Back to point in Iraq – Shia and Sunni are both Muslim people yet they fight over the most ridiculous reasons. Do you realize why they brutally kill, torture and abuse each other? It is akin to Baptist and Methodists killing each other because the differ over a few basic religious philosophies. Time Magazine has a really good summary piece I highly recommend for the uninformed. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1592849,00.html

The divisions in all major hotspots of that volatile area defy logic, cases in point include: Hamas vs Fatah in the Palestinian crisis and Lebanon’s situation with Hezbulah is no different. They can’t even decide amongst themselves so just like the well intentioned playground referee, we step in to help them settle it. You remember the playground referee don’t you? The guy who always interjected themselves into every conflict and everyone’s business. Don’t you remember, you didn’t like them did you? Well neither do the people of the middle east.

The moral of this story is simple. Just like the proverbial horse and water, we can’t force our beliefs, culture, and logic on people who have no conception of what we are even trying to give them. Even though we are lucky enough to live in a country where Walmarts aren’t always revered it just demonstrates the opulence and decadence we come to expect as “Americans”. In a place where you need to dodge gun battles to go get bread for your table, how can we expect them to even vaguely understand the rewards of our society. They don’t have the wealth of information, multimedia and propaganda that tell us how great we have it. Even if they did, it would probably be revolting to their version of morality.

We have to begin phased pullouts of Iraq immediately, to delay only means countless more precious young Americans will be sacrificed to the continued lunacy of this war. We have more important things to worry with at home to have delusions of nation building. What a bunch of arrogant clods We the People have elected to run our country. Take back our country, fire all the Liars!!

PEACE NOW!!

The Sage

Today I want to let you know about my favorite words. You will see them repeatedly in my posts and manuscripts so I just want you to get a feel for there contextual usage. All these definitions are in no particular order except the first and are my definitions except the bullet points which are pure unadulterated plagiarism and blatant paraphrasing of a Google define:xxxxx search.

1)WHY?!? – a rather difficult word to define but basically the term is a question that requires a response as to the rational or reason behind the stated concept or situation that sparked the question in the first place. The people I work with often make fun of me when we get into meetings and someone proposes some off the wall plan or idea. Its more the way its said than anything but imagine is a very sarcastic and emphatic whyyyyy? In other words, ‘what kind of a lame brained idea/topic/argument is that?’

2)Dangerous -
involving or causing danger or risk; liable to hurt or harm; “a dangerous criminal”; “a dangerous bridge”; “unemployment reached dangerous proportions”
causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm; “a dangerous operation”; “a grave situation”; “a grave illness”; “grievous bodily harm”; “a serious wound”; “a serious turn of events”; “a severe case of pneumonia”; “a life-threatening disease”
adj. . Involving or filled with danger; perilous.
. Being able or likely to do harm.
I often attribute dangerous to people that have power and the ability to inflict their will on us. These can range from street punks up to the President. A problem that exists today in a great deal of unexpected areas. Any child able to lift, point and pull the trigger can take your life in a heartbeat for no good reason. I am more worried about this happening than some “terrorist” event. However the loss of our freedom through the unscrupulous abuse of power that exists in Washington DC today is also a very real and apparent danger.

3)Intelligence or Smart – the opposite of Stupid. Having a brain that does something besides keep your ears apart. The ability to apply cognitive reasoning with mental acuity, accuracy and speed. Someone that can disagree in an articulate manner worthy of consideration. I don’t necessarily have to agree with someone that disagrees with me it is just difficult for me not to think that they lack information or have flawed logic

4)Stupid – Lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity. I would like to take some time on this one since stupid or a variation such as moron (pronounced moe-ron), imbecile (pronounced em-bi-sile), dickweed, idiot, jerkoff, egghead, clod, dumkof (ok I know its not spelled right but my ancestry is German not my vocabulary), dink, spud, or punk. I’m not to sympathetic to politically correctness, but I will try to refrain from using terms that could be associated with ethnic or racial groups. But that’s not a promise

Stupid can also be transitory or temporary since I will be the last to claim that I have not had my stupid moments. Everyone freezes or goofs in a given moment or circumstance that could portray a lack of mental acuity. However it is those individuals that consistently exhibit a total lack of intelligence, compassion, kindness or grace become by my definition, STUPID!! Other definitions:
dazed: in a state of mental numbness especially as resulting from shock; “he had a dazed expression on his face”; “lay semiconscious, stunned (or stupefied) by the blow”; “was stupid from fatigue”
a person who is not very bright; just your plain old can’t fix stupid, stupid; unintelligent: lacking intelligence
Stupidity is the quality or condition of being stupid, or lacking intelligence. The determination of who is stupid is difficult, despite attempts to measure intelligence (and thus stupidity) such as IQ tests. Mostly its just anyone I think is stupid since my intelligence is not in question

5)Ignorance – Lacking knowledge; without factual information; the condition of being uninformed or uneducated. Not to be confused with Stupid. Ignorance does not reflect ones intellectual faculties but simply states you don’t know. This is especially irritating when the person in question usually doesn’t know that they don’t know. Herein is where the overlap with stupid is conceived since I tend to get frustrated with someone who simply can’t admit that they don’t know. I also refer to this as the Engineers syndrome since engineers are notorious for not admitting they don’t have knowledge about EVERYTHING.

6)Knowledge – “ Having factual information; being cognizant of relevant happenings either through personally witnessing an event or assuming certain things to be true based on another’s account. This is a very Dangerous word as information assumed to be factual is not always true. This dilemma is at the crux of our problems today. Many of us assume that certain sources of news and information such as our National media and rely on them to present facts. However as we see all too often these days they are not all that trustworthy. Knowledge should not to be confused with Wisdom.

7)Wisdom – the skillful use of appropriate knowledge; knowing the difference between fact and fiction; a subjective mind set that is always debatable. Another nebulous term that I use to suggest a good idea; the ability to separate fact from fiction; and what my Dad always called ‘common sense’. Wisdom has a very relative scale. A homeless person is wise regarding how to make do on the street but has little wisdom towards maintaining employment or finances. So wisdom is very relevant to the subject of discussion.

8)Expert – The old joke goes that an ex is a has been and spurt is a drip under pressure. Most “experts” are con artists and oblivious to the facts that there are seldom any clean cut ideals or answers that are 100% correct. Most everything is relevant to an individual perspective. Not to say there aren’t people that know what they are talking about (like me for instance , I just think that anyone with advanced college degrees that have never done anything except teach aren’t always an expert. Don’t believe everyone’s claim to be or all those presented as Experts.

Well that wraps up Part One of my favorite words. There are several others that no doubt appear from time to time and I will make sure to define them as they occur
PEACE!
The Sage