You might find the above question absurd!

However, Morris Roth of Fort Lee, New Jersey in the Letters to the Editors of the New York Times on September 3 wrote the following:

"The Republican Convention dispels any doubt that Senator John McCain is running for President Bush's third term.

"Katrina, the economy, windfall profits for the oil industry as gas prices spiral out of control and eavesdropping on Americans -- but it is the war in Iraq that is Mr. Bush's albatross and everlasting legacy, which Mr. McCain supports at our peril."

You remember George W. Bush.  He's the one that the "principled" Republicans allowed an eight minute speech by satellite before being dismissed.

You also remember Dick Cheney.  He was sent on a foreign mission to Georgia and other  regional spots where his acute oil sniffer has picked up the scent of potential trouble.  He was never heard even on satellite.

Meanwhile, as Republicans distance themselves from their current leadership, John "Mr. Maverick of Principle" chooses as a fresh "voice of reform" Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin, who, in the midst of a continuing ethics struggle in her home state, has jumped forth to fill the shoes of Bush and Cheney as spokesperson of Big Oil.

Wednesday was quite an evening in St. Paul as Rudy Guiliani, who had previously fought tenaciously to convince New York City voters to elect him their mayor, promising that he is not one of those right wing hate-oriented kooks and even seeking to seal the deal with a comedic drag queen appearance on Saturday Night Live.

It was interesting to see a flashback of Tim Russert's interview when he asked George Bush about Iraq.

Russert brought up the fact that Bush had launched the Iraq War based on lies about weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam Hussein intended to use these weapons against the U.S.A.

Russert did not hesitate to let Bush know that when these weapons were never found many Americans were horrified that the U.S. had launched a war based on lies.

Hesitantly Bush acknowledged in words to this effect, "I thought there were weapons of mass destruction threatening the United States."

Yesterday, May 31, Barack Obama criticized John McCain for his statement that the Iraq surge was working and that troop levels had diminished since it was instituted.

McCain, as typical, was dead wrong and Obama is to be commended for his criticism.  After leveling it, however, he moved into other terrain that proved considerably less firm.  

Obama criticized McCain for his failure to admit making a mistake, indicating that all political figures of any duration ultimately make them.  He noted that the problem was in failing to admit making mistakes and move on.

The next point Obama made was to draw an analogy between McCain and George W. Bush in Iraq.  He noted that Bush's serious problem was his failure to concede that he had made a mistake in Iraq.

A Seattle Post Intelligencer May 20 Letter to the Editors headlined Clifford J. Hutchins's letter with this caption:

U.S. SUPPORTED, ENCOURAGED, IRAQ'S WAR AGAINST IRAN

Hutchins's letter declared:

"American firms, with the blessing of the United States government, supplied Iraq with components for the development and manufacture of chemical and biological weapons, which were used to rain down death and destruction upon the Iranians.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded.
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.  
Everybody knows the war is over.  
Everybody knows the good guys lost.  
Everybody knows the fight was fixed.  
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.  
That's how it goes.  Everybody knows.
~~Leonard Cohen

This last week I think marks when Iraq is finally sinking into genuine civil war. And our troops are caught right in the middle with no loyal allies, no goal, no exit strategy. I'd say there's a 50/50 shot it will calm down again, but if so it will be on Sadr's terms. Like last time. It could also spiral into even worse chaos and the Republicans have no idea what to do. I fear for our troops and I fear for the civillians of Iraq. 50/50 it calms down if Sadr wants it to...50/50 it will get really ugly.

In the past few days our surly Vice President who is normally in an "undisclosed location" surfaced to be interviewed by ABC's Martha Radditz in a now famous exchange, something to the effect that two thirds of Americans want us out of Iraq and his one word reply was "SO".

Then in this interview Cheney on ABC, on milestone of 4,000 dead

"The president carries the biggest burden, obviously," Cheney said. "He's the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm's way for the rest of us."

If President Bush has the biggest burden, I wonder how the families of the 4,000 dead "volunteers" feel and the over 30,000 severely wounded, I am sure it bothers them that the President has this huge "burden" on him.

Senator McCain, while you criticize Barack Obama as too "inexperienced" to become America's commander in chief we notice of what you have been doing.  You have taken the baton from George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and are using terrorism at every turn to attempt to frighten the electorate with steady 9/11 exhortations.

We noticed you singing with supreme gusto "Bomb Iran" with the kind of zeal indicative of someone serious about what he is singing.

Senator McCain, according to that reliable barometer, our National Debt Clock in Times Square, we currently stand ever closer to the at one time unimagined precipice of $9.3 trillion en route to a staggering $10 trillion figure.  

First, do you intend to launch a McCain Administration in the manner that ardent neoconservatives such as the "military expert" team of Norman Podhoretz, Bill Kristol, George Will, Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry would urge by launching a military attack against Iran?

The above headline was taken from a quote by the philosopher George Santayana.  How its profound truth resonates today.

President Lincoln wrote from Washington on August 23, 1963 to Horace Greely, "As to the policy I seem to be pursuing as you say, I have not meant to leave anyone in doubt.  I would save the Union.  I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution."

The U.S.A. was split apart regarding slavery.  Lincoln recognized that united we stand, divided we fall.  Lincoln recognized the authority of the Constitution created by the founders of our nation.

The conclusion of the Civil War united our nation and brought freedom to the slaves.  The price was high - the deaths of 620,000 soldiers along with an unknown number of civilian fatalities.

The cliché "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" capsulizes George Bush and Dick Cheney's rush into the Iraq War.

What has happened in the Middle East since the monumental deceit that the U.S. was threatened with Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqi dictator's nuclear ambitions is history written in blood and death.

The Bush Republican Administration, instead of bringing freedom and democracy to the entire Middle East, has instead transformed the entire region into a tinder box ready to ignite.  

The ensuing hell has seen 600,000 to a million Iraqi deaths and 2 ½ million refugees fleeing to Syria, Jordan and Iran with 3,800 U.S. service personnel dead and 55,000 combatants and non-combatants wounded.  

The cliché "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" capsulizes George Bush and Dick Cheney's rush into the Iraq War.

What has happened in the Middle East since the monumental deceit that the U.S. was threatened with Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqi dictator's nuclear ambitions is history written in blood and death.

The Bush Republican Administration, instead of bringing freedom and democracy to the entire Middle East, has instead transformed the entire region into a tinder box ready to ignite.  

The ensuing hell has seen 600,000 to a million Iraqi deaths and 2 ½ million refugees fleeing to Syria, Jordan and Iran with 3,800 U.S. service personnel dead and 55,000 combatants and non-combatants wounded.  

If Alan Greenspan was telling the truth about the Iraq War, that the Iraq War was all about oil, what might that mean?

It could mean that the Iraq War was putting men into a war not primarily to dispose of dictator Saddam, not to protect our nation from threat of a nuclear war, as was suggested, but to gain access to Iraq's oil.

The dictator was found and disposed of quickly so all the nations dealing with Saddam Hussein, including the U.S.A., could be kept secret.  

Wasn't the U.S. supplying Saddam with weapons that killed Iranians in the Iraq-Iran War?  Wasn't he supplied with the killer gas that murdered all those Kurds?

Based on falling congressional approval ratings, Republicans have been publicly implying that Americans don't like Congress since the Democrats gained control in January. In fact, congressional Republicans have far lower approval ratings than Democrats.

Given the recent polling data, Republicans should stop speciously pointing fingers and start asking: 1) why do most Americans view us negatively, and 2) what can we actually do to change that?

Last week's Gallup poll found that more American's trusted Democrats over Republicans to do a better overall job and to handle national security and prosperity. The new Washington Post/ABC poll results contain similarly bad news for Republicans.

On Sunday, September 9 Senator Barbara Boxer, speaking on CNN, said, "70 percent of the Iraqis want the U.S. troops out of Iraq."

President Bush claims we are in Iraq to bring democracy and freedom.  However, the glaring hypocrisy of this claim is self-evident.  With the majority of Iraq's citizens wanting the U.S. occupying troops to leave, Bush chases around the world insisting that the U.S. is winning the war against the so-called enemy and the troops must stay to keep Iraq stable.  This would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

Remember Bush's finger pointing propaganda before the Iraq War about the axis of evil?  Evil is in the eye of the beholder.

In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on September 9, in a sidebar adjoining her regular column, D. Parvaz speaks of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the 355 prisoners being held there.  Recently there have been 385 flights or disturbances there.