I don't know what to call this

Well, the news this past week has been interesting, a (Republican) congressman is all bent out-of-shape about a Muslim being sworn in this coming January, stating categorically that we will see quite a bit more of this unless we do something about immigration, (there are, apparently quite a few Muslims swimming the Rio Grande and hiding in cargo containers from China...).

I don't know, but suspect that if the newcomer in question had been a member of the GOP, or a white guy, he wouldn't have been singled out. Frankly, this is a pretty lame shot across the bow of the Democratic 'machine'. I guess he couldn't find any overt corruption (that he wasn't also involved with), or evidence that the Muslims promote gay marriage, drug use, or the socialist-welfare-state, so he decided on this 'issue' as his political anchor. You can read about Rep. Virgil Goode and his tirade here and here, and if you are inclined, the response of Rep.-elect Keith Ellison here.

Elsewhere, the sitting lame-duck is having a bit of trouble deciding what to do. I am sure that he is aware that he, all by himself, cost his party plenty last month, (nevermind the collateral damage done by the other GOP-er's who were tripping over themselves as well as their words in distancing themselves from damn near everything); and this lack of political unity (spelled c*o*v*e*r), is making it difficult to enunciate the direction that he wants the country to take, as it regards the conflict in Iraq. On the one hand, we have a situation where our troops are stretched very thin, and are operating on a day-to-day basis, putting out whatever fire seems most threatening rather than implimenting a strategy to stabilize the socio-political landscape to the benefit of the indiginous peoples (as well as, you know, us). That would seem to call for beefing up our forces, and the President is likely to do that, but the stalwarts of the party are not rushing to his side in a show of patriotic unity. Many, including (notably) former Secretary of State and Chairman of the JCS Colin Powell are saying publicly that throwing more troops at the situation won't help, all but saying that it is time to go.

The Baker-Hamilton report, issued last month is being pretty much ignored by the administration, and the term malaise seems to apply to the general trend of thinking from the capitol city.




A representative of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has hinted that it would 'talk' with the US over its predicaments in the region, and intimated that such contacts would be necessary for the west to extricate itself from these 'entanglements'.

Thanks guys, we are real anxious to meet you someplace, and discuss some things.

So, where are we going with this. I am going to state once again that it is very important to separate the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are not the same and the crcumstances of our involvement are poles apart.

Victory is possible, and necessary in Afghanistan. That conflict is the true war on terror. That conflict was, in my estimation, the product of a gross miscalculation on the part of this President and his advisers, who may have thought that this would be a short, relatively sweet operation to finish the job started in the first gulf war.

What we need to hear from this administration is a coherent plan to address the worst of the circumstances in Iraq, as well as the measure of success or failure and a plan to leave the situation to the native peoples to work out. And we need to hear it right away.



Stay focused.