IT HAS BEGUN TO COME LOOSE

To all,

We have reached that special time in America~election season. As many politicians plan to pack up their Washington offices for election season, the talk of the town is how can they begin to convince their electorate that they are doing the job elected to do in the face of mounting criticism from Americans towards their elected officials in the House and the Senate. While some politicians are trying their best to define how they are either with the war and its essence, but not the policies-they want to be a part of the Republican or Democratic party-without aligning themselves with the President or other party leaders who may initiate thought and policies that are seen to be ineffective, as well as trying to convince an American public (voting or not-but more to the voting) that a war costing billions in Iraq and Afghanistan will allow us to 'win' a war on terror where the battlefield is around the world.

In the midst of this kind of debate (a) an Israeli/Palestinian conflict that is not over and has not been difused where healing can begin, (b) A war in Iraq where soldiers/marines and others are still there at high levels and will remain there (as recent as 24 September) at high levels until next spring and possible beyond, (c) we have discord within both US parties and the United Nations over the war, Iran, domestic policy and the cost on American initiatives and (d) we find that our government-no matter their rationale-did have secret prisons, have engaged in questionable interrogations, tried to be above the law and in some cases re-write the law. Now we find our President on a political branch by himself while his party tries to maintain control in the areas of our government where he can operate without overt oversight.

As a citizen I wonder sometimes on how all of this will make the world safer for me and my children. At one level it is a unique thought to have that somehow a strained military (of which I was a part for 20 years of my life) can 'defend' America from people who are willing to die individually. I wonder what my President means when my President says we can 'win' a war such as this. Who are we fighting? He says Islamic extremist. Where are they? He says they are around the world. How do we defeat them? He says be using our intelligence community and our military to meet these terrorists around the world before they strike us at home.

I may not be old, but I have lived for a little bit of time. I do not recognize a time in my life that Islamic extremists (as they are called) have always had the power to send in few people to a community~sporting events, schools, train stations, buses, etc.~and create havoc. Large, proud military professionals can respond, but have a hard time to prevent. What has stood out to me, over the course of my life as well as in recent times, is the complete denial of the lives of the people we talk about. I do not see how we can continue to tell people of other nations to 'act' right when we don't recognize how people act in their part of the world. We allow allies to conduct operations that go against, in some cases, the basic premise of America and what we promote that we are around the world.

In the next month and a few weeks, we will here from many people who feel that we are under seige and need to stop anyone from hurting us. These folk will try hard to convince people in a variety of states that they have the answer for the ills of our nation. They will master the art of saying nothing about a lot and they will make campaign promises out of what many have not been able to do in previous political terms on the hill.

In the final analysis, schools will still suffer from cutbacks, social services will continue to lose necessary funding for the elderly and poor, social security will remain at risk, soldiers and possibly more soldiers will be risking their lives in a nation that has no idea on what they are going to do with themselves~to include paying for their own nation in money and in blood; although we broke it so we had to buy it (Colin Powel's statement to the President in 2003).

Whatever happens on our political front I am sure that it will be interesting...

Until the next time