Insanity

Reminded of that trendy definiton of Insanity... "doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results."
Comes a report in Financial Times

FT.com

(and many others) about a new poll, in which 57% of the pollees apparently think that it's a good idea to attack Iran! Fifty-seven percent of my countrymen appear to be insane!
Now, we have one of our body parts stuck in Afghanistan; another stuck in Iraq. Since that hasn't worked, lets put another one in Iran. Sure - that'll work! We'll just keep on attacking other countries until we manage to get it right. Casting back through recent history (well, recent to me anyway), we haven't been very successful at attacking other countries since the 1940's. Since then, ever since General MacArthur tried to start a war with China, which he succeeded in doing at a cost of around a million lives, thousands of them American servicemen, all our military adventuring seems to have gone awry. To put it mildly. I think we are soon going to run out of body parts to invest.

Which leads me to a (somewhat) parallel topic. I have changed my mind! Here's what I said last November:

I Did Not Think I Would Hear This

I regretfully take it back. Sorry Congressman Murtha.

Now it's my opinion that we need to leave all those troops in Iraq. More even, we need to send the entire force of the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force to Iraq. If the troops come home, that will only make them available for Mad George to send to attack yet another country that isn't a "Partner For Peace". I'm guessing here, but it sort of appears that any who aren't Partners For Peace are potential "Partners For War".
And there seem to be a lot of 'em.
No; lets send everyone to Iraq, where we have already had more Americans killed than in the World Trade Center. Keep 'em out of the bloody hands of the President.

Hamas

The "Shocking Victory" of the Hamas candidates in the Palestinian election seems to be somewhat of a bitter pill for George W. (Mad George) Bush, as well as for the Gov't of Israel. Here's a sample quote from Israel:
"If Hamas wants to be considered a partner in peace, it's very clear what it has to do. It has to renounce terrorism, disarm, accept Israel's right to exist and support political solutions to issues rather than pursuing violent jihad," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
Just wondering; is there any likelihood that Israel would do the same? Or is this a case of Might-Makes-Right, and Palestine must do what Israel says it must? Remain a puppet state, in essence.
Just asking.

Sacrifice

It's Eid ul Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice.

Here are the ones about to be sacrificed. I wonder what the goats think about this.
Meanwhile, President Bush has proclaimed the year 2006 as "Another Year Of Sacrifice". Really! For a man who thinks "sacrifice" is when the batter lays down a bunt, this is far too far beyond the pale. Just what is Mr. Bush sacrificing himself?

Except for the future of his country, the one whose Constitution he has pledged to Protect and Defend.


Here's an Iraqi who was sacrificed last year, when his wedding was bombed by US attack aircraft.


Here's another one who has been sacrificed, a soldier who was doing the bidding of his Commander in Chief, against all sense and reason.