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"It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." -in Feb. 2003dead amurkin troops: 3,217
Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.lucky fer us, taint no quagmire, rite? not whut that thar baghdad bob feller sed:
Iraqi fighters in Umm Qasr are giving the hordes of American and Brtish mercenaries the taste of definite death. We have drawn them into a quagmire and they will never get out of it. (Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf)quagmire:
quag·mire /ˈkwægˌmaɪər, ˈkwɒg-/–nounof yeah, thay wuz a nuther casualty of war:
1. an area of miry or boggy ground whose surface yields under the tread; a bog.
2. a situation from which extrication is very difficult ...
They all had hope for a better life in post-Saddam Iraq. Like me, they thought it would be the last of all wars.(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)
But slowly that hope disappeared. Militia groups roamed the streets, kidnapping became prevalent, and safety was lost.
Three-and-a-half years later, I took the same trip I took at the start of the war.
I found the people who danced in the streets of Kirkuk disappointed and skeptical about the future of their city. Near Hussein's hometown, angry people had kept their vows and become insurgents. In Baghdad, the streets were as lifeless as they were those first days. In Hilla, the smiles disappeared as car bombs created new mass graves.
The war has united Iraqis in their disappointment. I ask myself if our expectations were too high. It is hard to answer. But I look back and realize that the fears that I had four years ago were misplaced: If Bush had changed his mind about the war, things might be better now.






































The Bush administration is backing away from its long-held assertions that North Korea has an active clandestine program to enrich uranium, leading some experts to believe that the original U.S. intelligence that started the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions may have been flawed.it putt me in mind to rite a lil pome bout how our leaders use classified infermayshun:
The chief intelligence officer for North Korea, Joseph R. DeTrani, told Congress on Tuesday that while there is "high confidence" North Korea acquired materials that could be used in a "production-scale" uranium program, there is only "mid-confidence" such a program exists. Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, the chief negotiator for disarmament talks, told a conference last week in Washington that it is unclear whether North Korea ever mastered the production techniques necessary for such a program.
If the materials North Korea bought "did not go into a highly enriched uranium program, maybe they went somewhere else," Hill said. "Fine. We can have a discussion about where they are and where they've gone."
The administration's stance today stands in sharp contrast to the certainty expressed by top officials in 2002, when the administration accused Pyongyang of running a secret uranium program -- and demanded it be dismantled at once. President Bush told a news conference that November: "We discovered that, contrary to an agreement they had with the United States, they're enriching uranium, with a desire of developing a weapon."
The accusation about the alleged uranium program backfired, sparking a series of events that ultimately led to North Korea's first nuclear test -- using another material, plutonium -- nearly five months ago.










Linda
1948-2007
The word “Linda” means “beautiful” in Spanish. That was the perfect name for our Linda, because she WAS beautiful.
Yes, she knew all the various ways to fluff up hair and highlight eyes and add a little color to cheeks and lips. She knew how to add the decorations, too, right down to the practical aspects of piercing ears with a sewing needle and an ice cube. What she didn't know was that she didn't really need any enhancements: she was just plain beautiful. But Linda was not the first name I knew her by. To me, her adoring younger cousin, she was half of PatsynLinda. It took me quite awhile to think of Patsy and Linda as separate people, partly because it seemed like they were always together. PatsynLinda helped me learn to read. PatsynLinda taught me to dance along with the latest 45 rpm records.
It was always a holiday when PatsynLinda came to visit. And getting to visit them was an exotic vacation. On one visit, when I was in junior high school, I got to go to school with Linda for a day. She was in high school then, planning to go on to college and a career. But life had other plans for Linda. After she finished high school, she became a mother, so on my next visit she taught me how to take care of a baby.
Lee was still just a toddler when Linda went to work in a factory. I got to babysit him now and then, and I remember Linda coming home from work with machine oil under her fingernails. She might not have believed it, but her hands were still beautiful even then.
One day she came home unusually happy. She'd met this wonderful guy named Bill, and he'd asked her out. Bill was able to look right past Linda's factory-worker hands and see how beautiful she was.
Bill tells me it snowed the day they met, so what you see on the ground out there is just Linda's way of saying goodbye.
It's beautiful, isn't it?
Bill and Linda got married and brought even more beauty into the world: Lee's lovely sister Belina, who looks so much like her mother.
In what seems like the blink of an eye, another generation came along, and now Bill and Linda have three beautiful grandchildren.
Science tells us that the actual physical material that makes up our bodies is completely replaced every few months, so what makes us what we are, and who we are, is not the physical but the spiritual, a pattern of energy.
Linda's physical body won't be with us anymore, but her energy remains.
I will remember Linda every time I sing along with an old rock-n-roll song on the radio, every time I put on makeup or try to fix my hair. I will remember her whenever I do something good for my health. I will remember her when I think of one of our favorite places: the old swimming hole at Potter's Falls in Tennessee. I will remember all the things, and all the ways she taught me about the beauty of this world.
Thank you, Linda.
And on behalf of Linda's family, I thank all of you for being here to honor her today.
With love,
[miz duncan]
February 8, 2007
Are you losing track of the good and the bad in Iraq? We're told the Sunni insurgents are bad, but they're backed by Bush's noble Saudi pals. The Shiites are our default allies in Iraq, but the Iranians who are helping them are bad. The Kurds are good, because they're relatively peaceful and independent, except their peaceful independence is creating profound anxiety among our Turkish friends, which is bad. Al Qaeda is bad, we all agree, except when they oppose Shiite Cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, which is ... what ... good?reeminds me of that ny times articull name of In a New Joint U.S.-Iraqi Patrol, the Americans Go First:
And that's only scratching the surface. Within each of these groups are a dazzling array of quasi-official militias, criminal gangs, death squads, and even the local version of end-o-the-world religious maniacs hoping to hasten Armageddon. On any given day, these groups can be 'good,' while, paradoxically, their allies are 'bad.' Those classifications swing unpredictably on a right-wing whim dictated by whatever bullshit soundbite is mumbled incoherently that day to keep our fighting men and women in the blood-soaked turmoil.
The confusion is only furthered by an Administration warning that Iran may get involved if we leave, while telling us on alternating days that Iran is deeply involved. That Al Qaeda could gain a foothold in any vacuum left behind, while telling us repeatedly that the place is swarming with Al Qaeda. And we're sternly reminded we cannot pull US forces out or Iraq would become a failed state, in blissful, willful ignorance of the fact that Iraq is a failed state and, more to the point, it became one while occupied by US forces.
When the Iraqi units finally did show up, it was with the air of a class outing, cheering and laughing as the Americans blew locks off doors with shotguns. As the morning wore on and the troops came under fire from all directions, another apparent flaw in this strategy became clear as empty apartments became lairs for gunmen who flitted from window to window and killed at least one American soldier, with a shot to the head.sad thang is, we are stuck in a war that everbidy agrees we dont have no idee how to git out of.
Whether the gunfire was coming from Sunni or Shiite insurgents or militia fighters or some of the Iraqi soldiers who had disappeared into the Gotham-like cityscape, no one could say.
“Who the hell is shooting at us?” shouted Sgt. First Class Marc Biletski, whose platoon was jammed into a small room off an alley that was being swept by a sniper’s bullets. “Who’s shooting at us? Do we know who they are?”
Heartbroken in HobokenShe was talking about her career
She said something inside was choking
But when she laughed, I thought she was joking
Though I really did care
Heartbroken in Hoboken
Them harsh word have done been spoken
Them sad feelings done been awoken
I was not preparedShe said I could have been a contender
But I was content to play the pretender
But I ain’t pretending I’m ...
Heartbroken in
Heartbroken in
Heartbroken in Hoboken
Heartbroken in HobokenCause I found a letter on the bed
She raised a glass while I was toking
She had class, I was plain spoken
Opposites attract
Heartbroken in Hoboken
She went fast, I kept poking
She had a pass, I had the wrong token
Now she won’t come back.She said I could have been a contender
But I was content to play the pretender
But I ain’t pretending I’m ...
Heartbroken in
Heartbroken in
Heartbroken in HobokenSo I went on down to the pier
Guess you could say I was hoping to see her
But all I saw was an old fisherman catching an eel
“Oh Lord I’m hungry,” was all he said
As he bent down to cut off the head
And as the blood flowed red
I said, “I know just how you feel.”
Heartbroken in Hoboken(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link' below.)
How can you hear something unspoken?
How can you fix what you don’t know’s broken?
It don’t seem fair
Heartbroken in Hoboken
Them harsh words have done been spoken
Them sad feelings done been awoken
I was not preparedShe said I could have been a contender
But I was content to play the pretender
But I ain’t pretending I’m ...
Heartbroken in
Heartbroken in
Heartbroken in Hoboken
