Running out of words

It has been months since I have spent some time thinking about writing. To me that is what blogs are for--to satisfy the urge to write--and to take the time to think while doing it.

Why havn't I jumped on the blog lately? I used to be fairly consistant. On Friday of each week I usually made it a point to write a Friday 5 minute poem, or make a log entry of something that happened of interest during the week!

Perhaps I have not been in a mood to do poetry, or in a documentary frame of mind. I know that I have been out of sorts with the goings on around the world. I have been disappointed almost daily by what my country has become under the mis-guidance of the Bush presidency and the lack of sound thinking by the Republican congress. When our President has a news conference to brag about the fact that the budget deficit result is only going to be 300+ billion instead of over 400 billion this year, I wonder what might Bush think of as a failure for his administration. When he vetoes his first legislation in 6 years , a bi-partison bill allowing funding for limited stem cell research, mis-characterizing the process as saving lives of future children, I and everyone else with any common sense understands that his reason for doing so is strictly political to appease a small group of zealots at the expense of the rest of our society, and that his explanation for doing so is a lie, or at best a deception. Everyone knows that sooner or later this bill will get passed.

In the 6 years we have lived with the Bush administration and the lack of congressional oversight, we have made a big contribution to making the world a very dangerous place, and the reputation and influence of the United States in foreign affairs has plummeted. The credibility of our government has been shattered by the Bush administration's distortions, lies, and actions. To me and most of the rest of the world, based on experience, what our government says has no reliability and does not reflect reality. Action has often had no relation to the words expressing the intention.

It is depressing to think that we spend more on military might than the combined total of the rest of the world, and put people in power who think that the threat of force is the way to solutions of conflict in the world. Does anyone remember what it was like 6 years ago when Bush and the Neocon group that put him in power took over? There was a projected 400 billion budget surplus--with the possibility of continuing surpluses totaling a trillion over the next 10-15 years. That was going to be a positive to ensure the solvency of future baby boomer pay outs for social security and medicare, as well as paying down the national debt and controlling interest rates. Optimism was high for the future!

There was relative peace in the middle east with-on going negotiations making progress towards a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. There was on-going negotiation with North Korea regarding their atomic weapons program. Deals were being made or worked on across tables.

When Bush became President, everything stopped! Anything and anybody associated with the Clinton administration was discarded or ignored. Diplomacy in the middle east stopped. Instead, at the first opportunity we invaded Iraq, and created an "axis of evil" which cemented us into a position of opposition and conflict with countries where patience and diplomacy had been showing progress. We have a self proclaimed War President who thinks that's "cool"! Yes, there was 9/11. There were 19 zealots with boxcutters who pulled off an audacious attack. It opened the door for the Neocon plan for the middle east. Our response to the 19 "nuts" was an army of well over 100,000, an invasion of a country that had nothing to do with the 19 "nuts", and a continuing cost of 10s of thousands of lives, and 100s of billions of dollars. Who are the real "nuts' in this scenario??

So here we are. We are bogged down in a war that Bush started on a lie, and there seems to be no reasonable solution that will be to our advantage. The Israeli's are attacking Lebanon and may invade that soverign country, which has moved to a democratic government, but is unfortunately not strong enough to oppose and purge the terrorist elements within its borders. Hundreds of innocent bystanders are being killed and people are fleeing from a pending invasion. We are now powerless to intervene, but Bush seems to prefer that Israel keep up the bombing in any case. This conflict between Israel and the Arabs has been on-going for 60 years with no solution. By now everyone with any common sense knows there is no military solution. Every innocent civilian who is killed on each side of this conflict just creates a bigger open wound in the conflict.

Where are the wise men and women in our country who can provide world leadership. We must find them and elect them to positions of leadership.

I was born in 1942. I have lived with war my entire life and I am tired of it. None of the wars really solved anything. Oh, WWII may have been necessary, but who is to say that the truth of Hitler would not have caused his own generals and the German people to end his excesses and killing, with less damage than was done by the war.
The wars that have occurred since have all been mistakes by leaders who lead with deception. The Korean War was just a waste of lives which tore a country apart. It is still unresolved today. Vietnam was a great mis-judgement and built on lies just as the Iraqi invasion has been.

I wonder what it is like in a world without war. I don't suppose I will ever find out during my lifetime! Maybe I have just ran out of the words to complain or comment any more. Maybe it just feels that whatever is said just falls on deaf ears. It seems so plain to see!