I'm actually taking the day

I'm actually taking the day off today for a bit of rest. My plan is to do a bit of gardening/yard work and to be outside as much as possible while the weather lasts. It's suppose to be around 80 degrees today but will be down in the 40's tomorrow. Gotta love that New England weather!

They say "what goes around comes around...". Well, that time has come for Palestinian terrorist Abu Abbas who masterminded the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. He was captured (full story) by U.S. Special Forces outside Baghdad. Personally, I think he should have a separate trial for two reasons: 1) not using adequate skin moisturizer (just look at that face for cryin out loud!!!), and 2), where is the unkept mustache police? If he wants to look butch you gotta keep it trimmed! Can't have it both ways! Also, some gel in the hair (after shampooing!) would work wonders, although "bad hair" is not necessarily a something he could be convicted for under the Geneva Convention (section 5.3A, paragraph 8, sub-section H clearly says that in the event of "capture in war time", "unkept hair" is allowable). Unfortunately, it says nothing of mustache maintenance, which in my opinion, sucks.

On to less pressing issues of the day.....
It would seem that bombing people back to the stone age is the easy part of war. The more difficult task of rebuilding the country afterwards is the difficult part. This is especially try in a country where many of the residents of the country hate each other and are already complaining that one group or another is feeling left out of the formation of a new government. This is where the US could really mess things up if we aren't careful. This is where the damage of a bad government to replace the Hussein's rule could end up more oppressive than the former dictator's rule. Imagine a country in constant civil war. We like to say "let's leave them with a "democracy" where they can have "democratic elections". This is the same country that is so insane with it's own personal turmoils that it has looted it's own National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad where over 170,000 artifacts were stolen or destroyed.

What we seem to forget is that democracy didn't come easy to us. Much blood was shed to get to where we are today. What makes us think that Iraq will be able to make the change? Their way of life and ours are as different as is possible on the planet. We are the same melting pot as they are. We too have people of all different races, creeds, etc. The difference is, we didn't get there overnight. Our melting pot of today was reached gradually enough to allow our laws of the land to catch up and treat people equally (well, for the most part) across the board. The mindset of Iraq isn't there, and we must realize that. We can hope for an election system of some sort where the people are in charge of their own destiny, whatever that may be. But, in the end, there will be little we can effect, and we will be gone. The United States doesn't have the best track record of establishing compassionate and long-lasting democratic governments.

Syria.... no friend of the United States of course and it should be of no surprise that they are helping Iraqi militants out. The administration has "made it clear" that we don't plan on going to war with Syria. According to Colin Powell, "There is no war plan right now to go attack someone else, either for the purpose of overthrowing their leadership or for the purpose of imposing democratic values". Does anyone actually believe this? We certainly have our crosshairs on Syria, and that is also the opinion of many other countries in the world. Just yesterday we moved to close a pipeline carrying Iraqi oil to Syria, a move that could cripple Syria's already weak economy. From a strategic point of view, it makes sense. We are there. We would have to reinforce our troops and move more supplies in, but I believe we are really gearing up for another war. If I were Syria, I would stay real low and quiet right now. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.