“5000 died for nothing”?

As a veteran myself (World War II), I find it very difficult to accept the heading or the premise for Kay Hartley’s letter of May 24, 2015. Thinking people have long ago acknowledged that the Iraq invasion was a colossal mistake, but let’s blame Obama anyway. Did Obama disband the Iraq Army, leaving unguarded munitions dumps all over the country, and thousands of unemployed Sunnis and Shiites who hate each other (and hate Americans even more for destroying their country)? Was that Obama’s doing? Only diehard Cheney-ites wanted to keep an occupying force in Iraq with our soldiers being picked off, one by one, while we hoped the Sunnis and Shiites would suddenly begin to love each other, form a government together, and keep the oil flowing. They wouldn’t do what we wanted, so, let’s blame Obama. Two things are certain in the Muslim world: 1) Sunnis and Shiites will always hate each other, and 2) no foreign military can change that. But even so, we are supposed to blame Obama for all the current troubles in the Middle East. Despite the warmongers, who wanted to keep our soldiers in the Muslim crosshairs, Obama did what we asked him to do: He brought our troops home from Iraq, but let’s blame him for doing so before our “mission” was accomplished. Never mind that there was no legitimate mission in the first place, no reason for “shock and awe” with its massive destruction of a sovereign country and endless thousands of civilian deaths. But let us blame Obama anyway. Actually, if we do not rein in the war mongers among us, then maybe Iraq will have been “for nothing” after all.

Good times are coming

Things will get better, and soon. How do we know? The old saying is that thing must get worse before they can get better. As far as America is concerned, it is hard to imagine how things could get any worse than they already are. Could Republicans have screwed things up beyond what they promised to do when Obama got elected, and have so capably accomplished ever since?

Chutzpa

Chutzpa, from the Yiddish meaning “brazen nerve”. It’s the perfect word for Howard Myers’ and Rush Limbaugh’s criticism of the Obamas for not using the bully pulpit to improve race relations in America. To put that statement in perspective, consider the past seven years during which occurred what can only be described as the most intense, well organized, and financed campaign of character assassination ever directed at any individual or couple in the history of our country. Now, these same people who have been conducting the “hate Obama” campaign want to blame him, our first black president, for not eliminating the racism that has plagued the US since it’s founding.This is the very racism that spawned the unfounded and counterproductive hate for Obama in the first place. If there were any chance that electing an African-American to our highest office would change the attitudes of people like Limbaugh and Myers, we would be well advised to keep electing blacks until we could see that change begin to happen.

Two women making history

I want to contribute, but at the end of the month there just isn’t anything left. Also, I do not think it is good for the country to select a presidential candidate based purely on her gender and length of service. We do not know Hillary Clinton well enough yet to hand her the nomination. Her specific experience in some cases has been less than exemplary, and her connections to the finance industry are worrisome.