September 11th, 2008... A Remembrance

Just like December 7th, 1941 and November 22, 1963, when this date comes 'round we pause to remember where we were when we first heard the news, and how the news shaped our world for a very long time to come.

Today I was thinking, angrily, that if our govenment had only stayed with going after bin Laden and al Qaeda in Afghanistan instead of diverting to Iraq

there would be no al Qaeda in Iraq (Saddam would have kept them out in his own inimitable way),

we'd still be in the good graces of all those countries across the globe who held candlelight vigils for days following the September 11th attacks...

we'd still have a gung-ho, sold-out military re-enlisting time after time, one that could trust its leaders to send them to conflicts that were actually legitimate engagements...

... and we'd have a citizenry who wasn't as upset as it is by the choices this administration has made, which is costing us billions of dollars to stay in Iraq and which has brought our economy into a recession. We're borrowing money from China to wage the war in Iraq and to pay for the gas we put into our vehicles so that OUR money can go into the pockets of Middle Eastern countries that don't like us!

My sister's grandchildren -- and yours -- are going to be paying the costs of these ill-fated decisions all their lives.

Alas, this date is made even sadder because of the way the attacks were used to divert America from its prime objective: finding the perpetrators in Afghanistan and bringing them to justice.

It's an absolute disgrace to use the deaths of thousands of people in the way Bush did. May God have mercy on his soul.

Is he able to sleep at night?