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Aging Hippies, Part III"NOTHING IS LIKE IT SEEMS BUT EVERYTHING IS EXACTLY LIKE IT IS" November 08 Short History of War1. On 9/11/2001, 19 men hijacked airplanes and caused the death of some 2,976 people and some $650 Billion in damages. 15 of the hijackers were Saudis, one Egyptian, one Lebanese and two were from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
2. In the hours following that attack air travel in the US was shut down except for a few flights authorized by the Bush White House that returned dozens of Saudi citizens, many of them Bin Laden family members, to their home country.
3. The US attacked Afghanistan, supposedly to capture/kill Bin Laden and to neutralize the taliban/Al Qaeda. In one of the most strategically moronic military moves in the history of warfare, the US chased Bin Laden from where he was into the uncontested Afghan/Pakistan border regions where he escaped. Since that time we have supported a puppet urban Afghan government fighting a civil war against medieval rural warlords while the country continues to live in armed conflict and continues to grow record Opium crops as its major source of income.
4. The US also attacked Iraq under false pretenses having nothing whatever to do with 9/11.
5. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have gone on longer than WWII.
6. Foreign terrorists caused the deaths of some 3, 000 Americans on 9/11. Two American Presidents, on the other hand, are responsible for the deaths of some 4,000 US soldiers since then in Iraq and Afghanistan, besides the tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan military and civilian deaths due to our intervention.
7. Guantanamo is still open, rendition is still taking place, torture is still ok, and the Patriot Act is still in effect. We have lost our moral high-ground and a measure of our civil liberties as well as violated the law of land warfare, the Geneva Conventions, and international law. Not one of our elected officials has been impeached or held accountable for their crimes or censured for their stupidity.
8. Another 5 years in Iraq or 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan isn't going to result in any beneficial outcome to us or them.
9. As the C&W singer said, "Ya gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em."
Cost of U.S. Wars Since 2001
$926,906,942,391
Cost of War in Afghanistan
$230,543,563,508 July 14 Poet Laureate Kay RyanKay Ryan, the present US Poet Laureate, is not your average writer. Look her up.
TurtleKay RyanWho would be a turtle who could help it?
From Flamingo Watching Copyright Kay Ryan. Don't we all "live below luck-level never imagining....." Ok, you read it. May 17 Claims OfficeGold Rush, Diamond Fever
Most of the huge, easy nuggets (having been picked up)
were sold one Saturday night
long ago
for a song
a few drinks of the house whiskey
or a piece of long-forgotten ass
in a lawless, frontier mining town.
The lucky ones who struck it rich are dead;
dead or growing old,
forgetful.
Those who are left
sift tons of rock and sand
for the occasional flake
for what is left over that is
precious.
You are surrounded by rock and dross, for instance,
not a golden vein of purity;
and I,
both unlucky and unskilled as a collector of precious things,
will never declare you an easy catch.
The difference is:
I chose to dig deep and long for you
without a guarantee
through piles of worthlessness
for a few small pieces
of
treasure.
March 29 SpringGlobally: Poor Obama. He is trying his best to be a Democrat in the FDR and JFK style. Although he is talking the talk, he is not walking the walk, IMO. Gitmo is to be shut down (someday), troops are to be withdrawn from Iraq (someday), extra troops are to be deployed to Afghanistan, and the same bail-out policy that GWB started for the banks/Wall Street have been and will continue to apply.
Locally: Big hole in my driveway where a VW bus was once parked. I sold it. Other possessions being sold as we speak. What is wrong with me?
In My Head: The simpler things get, the better.
January 19 What a bitch !!The great American worry for tomorrow? Our cell phones may not work in DC on inauguration day because too many people will show up and dial up whoever cares to tell them they're at the mall and it's crowded.
On the other hand, HBO's failure yesterday to air a prayer by Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire wasn't due to a lack of available bandwith... it was a conscious choice not to risk being politically incorrect. Goddamn you, HBO.
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