He's no Ike

Let me start by saying that my first inclination was to call Sen. Reid a dumb son of a bitch. Having heard his comments from yesterday, specifically, "the war is lost", I sat dumbfounded and then cursed repeatedly.

But Sen. Reid is NOT a dumb man, whatever his pedigree. He's a very smart, very wily, very calculating, politician. His backroom deals and on-the floor parliamentary tricks have earned the respect of both sides of the aisle in the US Senate. Even in the minority, Reid often controlled floor agenda.

Reid knows he cannot get a bill past the President with a firm withdrawal date and that stalling troop funding is the current third rail of American politics. But he also knows the anti-war left, while not the majority of his party's members, control a large majority of its fundraising capabilities. So he has to look like he's doing something about the war.

As a consummate politician Reid has found a way to please the raving anti-war crowd and still maintain his political balance. He creates controversy and stirs national debate without any real action.

Unfortunately, his political maneuvering isn't executed in a vacuum. His comments have already resounded across the nation and the Middle East. He's emboldening not only domestic anti-war supporters but also terrorist insurgents and the anti-American forces in Iran, Syria, Somalia, and elsewhere.

Sen. Reid is a Senate floor mastermind and a skilled politician, but he is no general. He doesn't have the professional background, training or skills to give an accurate portrayal of US military capabilities. He needs to stick with what he does best, and leave the leadership of the most important forum for our nation at this time: the frontlines in Iraq, to the true experts.

Let It Be

On Monday night, and several times since, I sat down to write about the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I started writing about gun control laws, mental health services, political pandering, the role media plays in de-sensitizing society, and our insidious need to place blame as quickly as possible.

Every time I would lose my focus after the first few sentences. I would stare at the wordless screen and my heart would break all over again. As someone called to public service, as a writer, part-time social commentator, educated woman, mother, former RA, as a person, I should have a comment to make- right?

But the words wouldn’t come. Nothing was right. Then I heard a song playing in the background.

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be. Let, for this once, “Let’s Roll” be simply “let it roll on”. Let action not be the answer, not today. Let the pain do its work: give hearts time to heal, souls time to find comfort.

And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, let it be.

There will be time to make speeches. There will be a chance to engage in a societal debate about how to prevent a repetition of this horror.

But that time is not now.

And when the night is cloudy,
There is still a light that shines on me,
Shine on until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
There will be an answer, let it be.



** Lyrics courtesy of the Beatles and this site: http://www.mp3lyrics.org/b/beatles/let-it-be/

Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung

“The lawyer and parents of John Walker Lindh, the American-born Taliban soldier serving 20 years in prison after his capture in Afghanistan, called on President Bush on Wednesday to commute his sentence and set him free.”

Dear Johnny:
As an American citizen you are entitled to all the rights, enumerated and otherwise, set forth by the US Constitution. The flip side of that coin is that you are bound by the edicts of the Constitution concerning that highest of crimes: treason.

Article III Section 3:
Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

You DID get a lighter sentence, traitor. You should have been convicted of treason for making war with, aiding, and abetting, the Taliban. You are complicit in the murder of Mike Spann. Repent your sins and may God have mercy on your soul, for that’s the only pardon you deserve.

"Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
'This is my own, my native land!'
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung."
-Sir Walter Scott.