It's coming! Duck and cover! Be afraid! Invade Syria! Bomb Iran! My God, do anything! Vote Republican!

There, see? It's a terrorist . . . no, hundreds of terrorists! They are coming! Vote Republican ... or else!

Please, don't just take Medaiwingnuts' word for it; watch the mainline television news broadcasts or listen to nearly any radio newscast! The Republican Party is preparing us for yet more war to come ... broader, bigger, wider and more exciting than even Iraq has been.

Just vote Republican!

Thus far, when we see a graphic picture of a child or, as in the case below, children in a coffin, we know they are Iraqi children. True, we don't know whether they are Sunni or Shiite, male or female or even whether an American bomb killed the children or an insurgent mortar.


Sunni or Shiite, male or female? ... Does it matter?

No, it doesn't to most of us, but in only a few weeks or months, we will be asking, "Are they Iraqi, Syrian or Lebanese or are they Israeli even?" The scenario described in an earlier posting is unfolding right on schedule.

Not too many weeks ago, I confessed to my brother, Richard from Connecticut, that I thought I might be addicted to chaos. And yes, maybe I am (alcoholics often are) -- but not to the horrors of war! I've seen war close-up -- both in Vietnam and during the (first) Gulf War -- at least from my location at the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) in Riyadh -- and although I wasn't in combat, I saw all that I ever needed to see for a lifetime. My limping cat (Furface with the crushed spine from the fall from a wall that a Russian-built scud blew away) reminds me in a very small way what war is about -- and I know that it's a helluva lot more than that!

The child below -- is he Iraqi, Lebanese or Israeli? we can ask that today, can't we? -- but whatever and whoever, he will never forget the sadness and loss that comes from mindless and selfish war.


Iraqi, Lebanese, Israeli? Muslim, Christian, Jew? Does it matter? Maybe to his father who is pulling him away -- but brothers love their brothers worldwide ... certainly when they are as young as this little boy ...

When do we learn to hate? I remember some poignant lines in the musical, West Side Story that asked that same question ... and there was no answer then, as now.

But sadly, there is a tendency for Jews to hate Muslims and for Muslims to hate Jews ... and more recently ... and fed by both Republicans and Democrats it seems nowadays ... for non-Muslim Americans to hate Muslims. Terrorism has suddenly become a characteristic of Muslims. It's not just Michael Savage's, Sean Hannity's, Ann Coulter's, Rush Limbaugh's and Bill O'Reilly's rhetoric anymore; its the established media and mainline politicians who are feeding us this terrible lie ... night after night and day after day.

I won't argue that Hamas, Al-Qaida and Hezbollah are "terrorist" organizations, but hating them for their perceived evil nature -- and it's more likely than not this "evil nature" stems from memories of times past when the Muslim populations from which they came were treated worse than oppressed people that we read of in our history books -- only feeds the endless cycle of hate.

A little story: Shortly after the Iraq invasion, we bombed a residential restaurant in Baghdad, believing that Saddam Hussein was eating there at the time. George Bush personally ordered the attack. The story goes that fourteen persons were blown to bits -- all civilians. The picture that many of us remember is the picture telecommunicated around the world -- of the mother who collapsed in grief when they carried the headless body of her daughter from the wreckage. Who do you think that woman, likely still grieving three years later -- believes is an "evil terrorist"?

The bombing of civilians in Lebanon must stop now. The bombing of civilians in Iraq must stop now. Even the mere thought of invading Syria and widening the war must be erased from all our minds ... now.

Is the scene below a scene from Iraq, Lebanon or Israel? ... or is it a city in America in five years?


Detroit, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, Miami or Los Angeles?

My apologies for the whiplash caused by suddenly returning to the world that is ... and not remaining blissfully in the 19th Century of the previous posting.