Since late January I’ve withdrawn to my little cave in the side of the mountain. I can’t explain it. Maybe I was just recharging. Maybe I couldn’t look beyond the rim of the chasm anymore without wanting to jump. As is so often said, “It’s nothing personal,” I just had the feeling that everything on this 3rd rate little planet, circling a 5th rate star, was swirling down a huge black hole.

It’s not as if anything has changed, but I’ve upped my Prozac and I’m looking at things a little different now. Now, different should not be read as rosy. Different is different, not better. It appears that approximately 24,000 more soldiers will be sent to Iraq in the next few months. Democrats are so afraid of being labeled as defeatists (or “cut and runners”) that they’ve packed their balls away for the time being. Frankly, I thing that they should take their Conservative critics up on their challenge to do more than pass non-binding resolutions. Finger-wagging doesn’t stop an administration bent on accruing more power for themselves than Croesus had gold.

Try to wrap your head around this question: what are the long-term goals of this administration? I’m not talking about tomorrow or the next day. I’m thinking through the end of the century. What do you think that they’re trying to achieve in the world? Let’s use a little logic here: what can be achieved by continuing a war in Iraq? What would happen if the U.S. (and don’t talk about a so-called coalition. They turned tail a long ago) were to pull out tomorrow? Who is fighting whom there?

The first question: what can we achieve by staying? We would inevitably end up fighting with one side against another. We would have to either support Shia’a or Sunni. If we support the Shia’a, we would be empowering Iran and Hezbollah. If we support the Sunnis, we would be allowing the hegemons of the area to probably feel empowered to cleanse the region of Shia’as. Either way, it’s a blood bath with a 1,300 year history.

The reality on the ground is that the attacks on American troops at the moment are largely coming from Sunni insurgents. These Sunnis are being supported and supplied by our very good friends, Saudi Arabia. At the end of that long day, by supporting the Sunnis, we’re supporting Al Qaeda and a whole lot off others who don’t have our best interests in mind. This is not saying that the Shia’as have clean hands, but they are rather busy getting even with Sunnis. There are no ‘good guys’ in this scenario.

Well, there are some good ‘guys’: the volunteers who have now been ‘gang-pressed’ into service to the U.S. government. It’s these soldiers who’ve come up with the wonderful term FUBAR. It rivals the WW II term SNAFU. Why do all the good sardonic comments come from the grunts? There’s always going to be a “Willie” and “Joe,” tersely commenting on all they see. Today’s soldiers were promised certain things about being in a peacetime army, which they probably shouldn’t have believed. But, they were also promised a lifetime of care by the Veterans’ Administration. Now we have found out what they found out right after the invasion of Iraq: the covenant with our veterans was broken on 20 January 2001. All of the progress in bringing up the VA facilities up to world-class standards during the previous 8 years was negated on that day. Veterans who had been promised a lifetime of care now had prove that their medical problems were service-related. A veteran could no longer count on his/her willingness to sacrifice his/her body for flag and country to be reciprocated by lifelong care by a grateful nation.

Well, I’ve gone off on a rant and haven’t even tackled the second question. Shall we save that for another day? I think so, but let me leave you with this little headline, “Hualapai Indians hope a new glass skywalk over the Grand Canyon will provide the impoverished tribe with a desperately needed economic boost.”

Yes, it’s completely off-subject. But just think about it for a second. The tribe have invested quite a bit of filthy lucre to build a glass walkway that juts out over a ledge on their reservation in their wee corner of the Grand Canyon. Conservationists and preservationist have their knickers in knots over this. The tribe is hoping to get more tourism at their particular little desolate spot. Note that they aren’t opening a casino. Nor are they just sitting around complaining about their off-season 80% unemployment. They have taken their little ‘lemon’ of a spot and tried to make it into lemonade. Sometimes you can’t win for trying. For myself, I can’t wait to try out that glass walkway; even if my knees go all wobbly beneath me. Hoorah for the Hualapai!

Please give what you can to Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).

And, of course

*F#&!ked Up Beyond All Recognition