Cheney: "It is worth reminding ourselves, that like it or not, the enemy we face in the war on terror has made Iraq the primary front in that war."

No, Mr. Cheney, it was not the terrorists who made Iraq a front line in the war on Terror ... it was you and those to whom you suggested (Rumsfeld, Bush, etc. -- even the then Sectretary of State Colin Powell) that we invade a country that had not killed a single American in a decade. But in the long run, even Haliburton and the US oil companies that stood to gain will actually profit from the sad carnage that we began in Iraq. The latest Rasmussen polls show that most Americans think we are falling behind in our war on terrorism and the sudden "correction" in the stock markets during the past week suggest that the beliefs go further than the Rasmussen polls.


Do you wonder why?

What few Al-Qaida who are even in Iraq are largely from Saudi Arabia and the three major groups of combatants (the Sunnis, the Shiites and the US) are the primary sources of photos like the one above.

Yes, we should attack and destroy terrorists who threaten us ... but they simply aren't in Iraq! Yes, that's where the the oil is and that's where billions of dollars can be made by contractors who contribute mightily to the Republican Party ... but the terrorists are elsewhere and, quite frankly, we should be striking them before they strike us!

My apologies to those persons who were offended by the photo shown above. But it's time we saw clearly what the war in Iraq is all about. As bad as the Administration has failed in providing a clean and pleasant environment for our wounded heroes in our VA hospitals (and especially in Building 18 of the Walter Reed Medical Center), it's even less pleasant in those areas of Iraq following a US bombing raid or, for that matter, a Sunni-upon-Shiite or Shiite-upon-Sunni tit-for-tat vengeance raid.

Saddam Hussein was indeed a butcher, but what exactly do we call what has been happening to Iraq and to our own soldiers since the exciting evening of "Shock and Awe"? Or even since we cheered to "Mission Accomplished"?

History will be the judge, I'm afraid, and nothing ... absolutely nothing ... will turn the ongoing carnage in Iraq into a "victory over terrorism" ...