IRAQ, KATRINA, AND WINDFALL PROFITS

Call to the mind's eye the devastation of Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, the destruction of lives, livelihoods, infrastructure, natural resources, transportation, wild and domestic animals, the economic costs of oil loss, and many other kinds of damage that I cannot name.

Estimates as of yesterday were that the costs of repairing the damage of Katrina is around $26 billion. That number may rise, if it has not already.

Now compare the damage along the Gulf Coast with the damage caused by Bush's war in Iraq. Not only is the infrastructure of Iraq destroyed, but its political, social, and belief systems are either destroyed or damaged beyond repair. American deaths there now approach 2,000 and the number of permanently maimed Americans is measured in the 10s of thousands. Probably a hundred thousand Iraqis have been killed or maimed, many of these children.

To put the costs of this war into perspective, note that the costs to American taxpayers for the debacle in Iraq is in the $100s of billions. Just the recent additional budgeting of $84 billion is more than three times the total estimated cost to repair the damage of Katrina. Talk about destructiveness! Katrina is a petulant child compared to the monster war. Just think of the constructive acts we could accomplish if the money spent on killing and destroying in Iraq could be devoted to repairing the damage of Katrina.

WINDFALL ALERT

President Bush says he is going to release oil from the strategic reserves to help restore the loss brought by Katrina. That is a good idea. I just hope the watchdogs who have access to information about this release will look out for and report the windfall profits that are almost certain to accrue to the big oil companies from this release. They need to look out for the price the oil companies are charged for the released oil and the price at which they sell it back to the American people. Remember the oil was originally purchased by the government at prices much ower than they are now. Watch for the oil companies to obtain the oil at those lower prices, or worse still, at no cost, and then sell it to American consumers at today's wildly inflated prices.

FAMILIAR RING

Three times this week Bush has tried to defend the war in Iraq. Neither of them effective. Now he has come up with another reason(s) for continuing the war: we gotta protect Iraq from terrorists. Shades of protecting us from WMD. I suppose we can expect a whole series of explanations over the next few weeks.

Does he really think anybody but semi-literates will be impressed by his efforts to compare this stupid Iraq war with WWII? Such childish nonsense. Bush's war is a totally unnecessary war that he started for reasons having nothing to do with national security. World War II was a great war of liberation and one that we had to fight. Oh, well. Being but semi-literate himself and knowing nothing of our nation's history, we can't expect much more.

DUELING MOMS

President Bush has now produced tearful moms to defend his failed war in Iraq. How juvenile can he get? The issue here is not who can trot out the most moms, but the unfairness and evil of any mom losing a son or daughter in a war that should not have occurred in the first place. If Bush had done right from the beginning, there would be no grieving moms or dead and maimed American soldiers to mourn.

The right thing to do now is to bring our troops home and stop killing them and innocent Iraqis. We can do this without any injury to ourselves or to the Iraqis. Stopping the violence and expense would, in fact, benefit all parties involved. Still, Bush claims that pulling out would weaken the United States. Just how that weakening would occur he doesn't explain. Clearly, this is just another self-serving assertion that he expects his simple minded followers to swallow without question.

CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES, UNITE . . .

. . . We have nothing to lose but our chains to Iraq. We pulled out of Vietnam and the world didn't come to an end. In fact, Amerians were not hurt at all. We can also pull out of Iraq without the world coming to an end or Americans being hurt.

Bush would have us believe that unless we continue killing and being killed in Iraq that we will be undone as a nation and a people. Nonsense. "Staying the course" is so many buzz words. No harm will come to Americans if we pull out of Iraq now. To the contrary, only good will result.

Listening to George Bush plead to continue his war only contributes to his ego mania. He was wrong to lead us into this unprovoked and meaningless war, and it is wrong to continue it now.

THE PERILS OF ADVERTISING

In my long and uneventful life, I have watched lots of corporations decline from leadership to just holding on and finally to final bankruptcy. Incompetence and indifference at the top seem to precipitate downward to all divisions and ultimately to all employees. Management becomes the role model of precisely the kind of employee the company doesn't need--and may not even want--but that will eventually destroy it. If it is a retail company, shelves will be unstocked, prices marked on the merchandise will not match the prices that come up at the checkout counter, employees will avoid customers and if forced to interact will be surly and indifferent. To reduce costs, the company will reduce the number of employees so that a customer cannot find even and indifferent one when needed. After a while customers lose faith and begin to go elsewhere.

How do corporations respond? Instead of improving service, retraining employees, renewing stock, or improving the quality of merchandise,
almost invariably the company responds by stepping up its advertising. Local TV stations and newspaper will carry increased numbers of advertisements making increasingly exaggeraged claims for the service and merchandise of the company. It does not work, of course, and soon the company files for bankruptcy and that is the end of it.

What does this have to do with the price of eggs? I see by the papers and other media that the Bush administration has now installed Karen Hughes as its mouthpiece to the rest of the world. It is clear that the United States is getting a bad press all around the world. Unfortunately, it is a press well deserved, for we have performed badly. But, instead of correcting the policies that cause the trouble and generate international ill will, the Bush administration adopts a corporate response (advertising) and launches an international propaganda campaign to apply lies and denials to its problems rather than attempt to face them directly and make the changes that would correct them.

It won't work.

NEW CONSTITUTION: A FALSE HOPE

Bush's claim that we must stay in Iraq and finish the job (whatever that is) is pure malarkey. Even if Iraq succeeds in writing a new constitution, what reason is there for believing that it will bring an end to hostilities? Or that we will gain easy access to their oil? Instead of bringing peace, a new constitution, because it cannot satisfy the demands of all conflicting and hate-filled factions, will likely produce more hostility than it resolves. The drive for a republican form of government in Iraq is not coming from the Iraqis themselves; it is being imposed on them by the United States. We may think that because we have bigger guns and bigger rockets that we can ram a capitalist ridden form of government down the throats of Iraqis, but we cannot. They, as every other people on earth, can accept and live only with a form of government that they devise out of their own needs.

THOUGHTS ON GAZA

Although I can feel sympathy for individuals and families losing their homes, I have also to recognize that Israelis should never have moved into Gaza in the first place. And all the attention to the pain of leaving cannot obscure that fact. The occupation was wrong from the beginning and is still wrong today. It has continued as long as it has simply because the United States stood behind Israel and protected it no matter what it did.

Things have changed, however, in the past few years. Because of the short-sighted polices of the Bush administration, the United States has lost so much influence in the world, especially the Arb and Middle East part, that we can no longer backstop Israel in its expansionist efforts. Nations of the world don't respect our purposes as they once did and will not follow our lead. More important, they realize that American citizens do not have the stomach for the kind of protracted and unconventional wars fought in the Middle East. Recognizing Americans' growing distaste for the war in Iraq, Israel also sees the handwriting on the wall and appears to realize that its survival now depends less on the United States and more on its relations with its neighbors. Hence the withdrawal from Gaza. As America's stature in the world continues to decline, we may see more softening of Israel's intractable positions and land grabs. On the the upside of decline in American influence we may be less likely to conduct pre-emptive attacks against other countries.

(I see that Bush has said the pullout will strengthen ties between Israel and the United States. We must always beware of any claim Bush makes, for what he says almost always is the opposite of what he actually seeks to make happen.)

WHAT BUSH MUST DO

President Bush is at this moment confronted with a critical moment of the Iraq war. A mother who has lost a son in this war waits outside his home to see him and ask what is the honorable purpose for which her son died. In her sorrow and loss, she speaks with a moral authority that no other individual possesses. Whether Bush understands his obligation, and even if he does not care, he must meet this mother and hear her plea or forever lose all legitimacy as a man and as a national leader. There is no right of refusal. To attempt to avoid meeting the mother and talking with her will brand him forever as a coward and indifferent to the human cost of his war. Worse, remaining aloof, defensive, and fearful will tell all Americans that Bush is concerned only with himself and his political interests.

What Bush needs to do is walk out to the woman, take her by the hand, and lead her into his house. He should tell her to tell him what she wants him to hear and that he will listen. He does not have to make a commitment that might cause difficulty down the line, but he must face the mother and meet her on her terms. This simple act of honesty and compassion will earn him respect all across the nation.

CHEAP TILE

I admired John Glenn's courage when he let them shoot him up into space in that little old tin can. Scared me just to think about it, but the vehicle seems to have had some substance to it, if diminutive in size. Now this crowd up there in the shuttle are apparently oribiting around in a really flimsy piece of junk. They needed to repair it but were afraid to touch the tiles for fear that they'd fall off or otherwise be damaged. What kind of tiles are that fragile or so insecurely fastened on? Why would NASA send a crew up in something so dangerous? I advise this crew to get down as soon as possible. If that contraption they're riding around in is so fragile that it's likely to be damaged by simply touching, let alone by an astronaut bumping it, I say get out.