Reverberating----and deja vu

There are some lyrics that come to mind:

"It seems to me I've heard that song before---It's from an old familiar score--
I know it well that melody-----"

The verses in this version have been written with little change since 9/11.

Al Queda is going to get us.......it seems all that fighting in Iraq and the various claims about how many of the franchise have been eliminated hasn't exactly changed a single thing. (Oh we don't need to be concerned that it has cost almost four thousand of our best fighting troops and put the nations treasury into a debt that will burden a couple of future generations - if first it doesn't topple the economy into a recession so severe that all minds will forget about Al Queda.)(And not to worry either about the tens of thousands of innocent civilian casualties and the several million that are now in refugee status - forced by the circumstances in their country to flee to Lebanon, Jordan, Syria or Iran) No No, those are just trifles, at least to the present administration.

My view of Al Queda is that yes it is a terrorist organization but no, it is not the threat that the military/industrial/corporate/political complex uses it for, i/e to instill sufficient fear to make war acceptable. And to make many in those segments richer. Chertoff's "gut feeling" aside, let's be real, A//Q is being used as a political tool in a way to accomplish the goals of an old neocon group from the past that wiggled their way into power in this admin via Cheney selecting himself as v/p. They are much scarier to me than A/Q.

Another conclusion one is forced to arrive again at, the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing in the beltway bureaucracies. Just take your pick of the lottery, do you want to believe the rhetoric dished out today by "W" in a press conference. Or the NIE update. Or the intelligence report from the CIA, or one of the other interpretations offered by the various administration appointees, trotting in front of the media microphones again in an attempt to spin all of this just the "right" way. Meanwhile Congress is spewing forth a smorgasbord of proposals to effect deployment - none of which are going to survive a presidential veto.

The hawk element is flapping their wings wildly and noisily, Iran being the main focus of their dire predictions.

Let me ask you, if some foreign country invaded Canada or Mexico, do you think we would keep hands off? So why would it not be expected in Iraq by Iran, it seems that is as predictable as the sun being up there in the solar system for us to orbit . What passes for thinking in Wa and those so-called think tanks they rely on heavily?

Why am I watching and commenting on all this? Well a couple of reasons. First, I really care what happens to this country and secondly - it is too damn hot to be doing much else.

I am living in the Valley of the Sun and we are about three weeks into a series of days with temperatures over 100 degrees, and many times over 110. I can only read so many hours. And wouldn't it be a good idea to call a summer stand down by all parties in Iraq with the temperature there even higher than here. If the I-Parliament can knock off for the summer, why not the fighting men and women?


So between the saber rattling, war drum beating and fear mongering,........ I think. None of it strikes a cord with me. Only discord. In the wrong key for my particular non-voice. I despair of having republican senators only - futile to give them my views although sometimes I do anyway. From a sense of duty, I suppose.


The past couple of days have convinced me that there will be no change of course, or direction, during this administration. Whether the nation can be resuscitated afterwards remains to be seen.


graysmoke