As important as I think our lacking Health Care "System" is, something else bothers me more!!

It is nearly impossible for me to keep track of Obama and his administration. Among the economy, Pakistan, Iran, Health Care, the (still leaking) Mexican border, Afghanistan and (oh yes, still) Iraq ... it is hard to keep up with it all.

Of most concern to me (despite Obama's limp defense this evening of his (non-existent, but definitely needed) health care system overhaul, is that Obama has so dramatically changed his tune about being against war since the election. I know for a fact that a lot of my friends voted on Obama because they called Bush a war monger. It's not the economy stupid; it's Armageddon!

And oh yes, they (including me) also thought he would do marginally better on the economy than McCain. Whoops!

At the rate Obama is sending more troops and money to Middle East--albeit that Afghanistan is the target today--we will be there another 100 years!! Didn't he criticise McCain for that comment?

Well, July has been the deadliest month yet for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Iran is developing a nuclear capability--not to mention North Korea--and the topic of the moment: Health Care!

Sadly, the longer we stay in Iraq and Afghanistan and the more money we spend on the burgeoning Defense budget, the more we'll feel compelled to remain in the Middle East to validate the investment. A similar self-imposed predicament plagued U.S. officials during the war in Vietnam. Oddly enough, when opinion leaders in Washington talk about "lessons learned" from Vietnam and other conflicts, they typically draw the wrong lesson: not that America should avoid intervening in someone else's domestic dispute, but that America should never give up after having intervened, no matter what the cost.

The most important response against a "withdrawal is weak-kneed" argument is that America's military roams the planet, controls the skies and space, faces no peer competitor, and wields one of the planet's largest nuclear arsenals. America is responsible for almost half of the world's military spending, and can project its power to the most inaccessible corners of the globe. Thus, the fear that America would appear "weak" after withdrawing from Afghanistan (today's "front" in the war on terror) is totally irrational.

The $1.5 trillion that a decent health care system might cost (today's estimate) could be bought and paid for ten times over (or never on a planet that's radiated ten times over) for the cost of the continuation of Bush-cum-Obama's War on Terror.