The way the news keeps talking about the Virginia Tech killings, you’d think it was the only thing going on in the news. Did everyone forget about Darfur, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, missile defense in Poland, Russia, Chinese bootlegging, the failure of Windows Vista, etc? I mean, yes, it is extremely tragic that 32 people died who are, at most, only five years younger than me. They had their entire life ahead of them. If my kids died before me I’d be devastated. But put this into perspective!

Those of us who read the newspapers, which tend to be focused on more details than Tv news, have read the stories that neither the administration nor Tv news have focused too much on: Iran was cooperating with the USA after 11 Sept 2001. They were helping us go after the Taliban and catching terrorists. Of course, I’ve learned recently they also had a self-interested motive in doing so as the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan was [along with Iraq] one of their long-time rivals. However, they were helping us. Then Bush named Iraq, Iran, and North Korea in the Axis of Evil in the 2002 State of the Union. Besides providing a lot of fodder for SNL and other Late Night Shows, this had the effect of Iran ceasing to help us. They were thinking, “Axis of Evil? You SoB, we were just helping you in Afghanistan!”

FiveFour years ago I was on Spring Break and watching CNN at 0000 (midnight) or later. I was talking to my wife (then my girlfriend), although I don’t remember if it was over the phone or on AIM via my dad’s laptop. There was a breaking news bulletin and then I saw a night vission goggles image of Iraq being blown to bits. Shock and awe they called it. I was certainly shocked - although I had been vaguely following Colin Powell and the others making the case for WMD. I didn’t have cable Tv in my dorm, so I wasn’t really following the news at all that year. I was pretty impressed when, about a month later, the fighting portion of the war was over. Actually, as far as I was concerned, the war WAS over. Recently, we have learned, Rumsfeld had hoped the same thing. It was his idea to get rid of Saddam and then let the Iraqis do their own thing. However, some other demons - perhaps Cheney or Wolfowitz - whispered into Bush’s ears about making it into a wonderful Democracy and all kinds of BS that had nothing to do with the WMD/Al Qaeda lies they told us to get into the war.

We’re currently mired down in a war that is wearing our armed forces thin. The military is having a hard time meeting its recruitment targets and they have resorted to lowering their recruitment standards. Reports in the news have talked of people with drug problems and prior prison time being hired. Open gays? No - can’t have that! What about the fact that some of them can speak arabic and we’re fighting in a bunch of arabic countries? No - still don’t want them.

So, today I heard the biggest shock of 2006, Donald Rumsfeld was sacked! This was a surprise because Bush emphatically declared, going into the election, that he would not get rid of Rummy. It was also a surprise because I thought Bush would let the democrats fight to get rid of Rumsfeld, thus putting the blame on them if things went wrong. Instead, the day after the election he was out and Gates, a former CIA head is in. I didn’t really like a lot about Rumself and the way he ran the Pentagon, but hopefully we haven’t taken a step into WORSE policy!

“eat like a pig, ride [a bike] like a beast” - Marc S.

“Given unlimited time and unlimited support, we’re winning the war” - General Abizaid about Iraq War

“This is not a war on terror any more than WWII was a war against kamikazes.” - John Lehman about Iraq War

Others have probably covered it to death. I am just mentioning it because it is that important.

I saw something today that disgusted me. It’s relatively old news, but it’s the first time I’d actually seen the story on tv. It seems there are some Christians who have made it a point to undermine Christianity at all costs. What makes it even worse is that these guys are a bunch of Baptists, which is what I was raised as. The churches my parents went to were never so ridiculous. What I’m speaking about is the group who is protesting at soldier’s funerals. This made me so sick and outraged! They claim that 11 Sept 2001 was punishment because America is tolerant to gays. They also believe that the soldiers have done evil because they are fighting for an evil administration.

For a while I kept wondering what the heck was going on in Iraq. Why were the Shi’ites and Sunni killing each other? Aren’t they both Muslim? What barbaric behaviour to kill your own compatriots, not because they are a different religion, but just a different sect! But then, one night as I lay awake in bed, I thought of Europe in the 14-1800s. Dozens of wars were fought between different countries in Europe because one side was Protestant and one side was Catholic. Heck, the British suffered through a few civil wars over different sects of Christianity. So, I guess it’s not so strange to see them fighting this way.

I was watching ABC Family a few nights ago when I discovered that Who’s Line is It Anyway? was on right before I went to bed. Right after the second episode of Who’s Line, ABC family became CBN. I am not sure, but I think that stands for the Christian Broadcasting Network. I guess that meaning for the acronym because the show that appeared on my Tv was some 700 Club news program Co-hosted by Pat Robinson. We all know that Pat gives quite a bad name to televangelists everywhere, as if it were possible to give them a worse reputation. He calls for absurd things like taking down Hugo Chavez from power. But they were talking that night about myths involving the War in Iraq and I was intrigued to see what they would say. Some fellow was on who had written a book on the subject and basically made a bunch of claims contrary to what we’ve been hearing in the news. He claims we haven’t been hearing about it because of an agenda that news organizations have to discredit Bush.

Two days ago, the Democrats called a secret session of congress to look into whether the Bush Administration purposely misled the American public with respect to the resons for the War in Iraq. This is an open secret to me. Only a fool doesn’t know that Bush or his cronies purposely lied about the war in Iraq. They wanted to go to war from the time they came into office and the terrorism attacks simply gave them the excuse they needed to waltz right in and take the country. I mean, that’s the whole point of the Valery CIA Leak investigation. Her husband found out the yellow cake excuse was BS. When he told the Administration they ignored him. When he leaked to the press, they put out his wife’s identity. Why do this? Because they were lying! Otherwise, why be scared of what he was saying?

Today it was announced that there have officially been 2000 deaths in Iraq. This has been called a benchmark by a lot of anti-war protesters and they want to have 2000 people meet up in Washington DC and act dead to show people just how many people are dead if 2000 people have died. I, as my readers know, am against the war in Iraq because I believe it was a war of convinience, not a necessary war. However, I am very surprised at the big deal over 2000 deaths. In the Vietnam War there were hundreds of thousands of deaths. In World War I there were millions of deaths in just the first few years. Countless wars have caused many more than 2000 people to die and in a much shorter period of time.