Certainly it is for Christians world wide, being an important religious celebration for them, although it has moved more and more toward consumerism/materialism — good for the economy, right?

But what about Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, et al? Many are free to celebrate their own religious events.

My point is, however, that there are many who are suffering, suffering because of actions taken directly by our own government. Should I enumerate them? No, it is better to lament them and put a stop to them.

Yet our leaders in the Executive Branch do not appear to be in such a frame of mind as to lament and change course. No, they appear to be doing all they can to find a way to keep us on their course, circumventing/ignoring the political defeat they suffered in the recent election with carefully selected words, as usual, words selected to instill more fear in order to generate their continued military surge, don’t they?

But wait, not only Iraq, but regarding the Middle East in general. We are beginning to be told that we must increase the size of the US Army by about 75,000.

In my view, the reason is that the neocons now wish to threaten Iran, as they appear to see only a military solution to counter the Iranian threat. Diplomacy, suggested by the Iraq Study Group, has already been discarded as an option.

Thus, well before the upcoming President’s speech in January, they have already discarded a diplomatic approach, having dialog with Iran, with Syria. They continue to make no meaningful gestures to get the peace process going again in Palestine. They continue to avoid developing a regional dialog in the Middle East. When will they learn that military solutions are totally counterproductive, providing only suffering and intense hatred of our nation? So what is the prospect for Middle East peace under George Bush?

In the meantime, there are many American families who are suffering this Christmas, suffering at the loss or maiming of loved ones, including those whose heads are now unscrewed, perhaps for life. These and the hundreds of thousands of suffering Iraqis and Palestinians, all suffering partly because of the incompetent policies of George Bush, a man who thinks that being stubborn is a desirable quality in a leader.

Matt Damon said it right on Hardball the other night, when he said all this suffering is so unfair; so few of us carry the burdens of the Bush Iraq War. Not only are most of us not involved, we have not even been asked to pay, as we have had tax cuts; instead, we borrow, from China et al. How prudent is this? How fair is this?

The implied litmus test is this: Would George Bush be able to continue his militaristic violence if we had a draft? The election results are telling as to the true answer to that question. Bush cannot continue to fight this war his way without the political support of the American people. I don’t think he realizes this; that is how out of touch this man is!

The Iraq Study Group had it right when they said the we need a policy that has bipartisan support in order to bring resolution to this failed war.

Bush & Co. do not appear to be listening to the American people, so the result will inevitably be continued strife, self inflicted and inflicted as well on the Iraqis, maybe as well the Iranians in the near future.

Sorry, I cannot trust George Bush; and I continue to think he is incompetent. The only hope is that the new Congress will insert/force sanity into an insane WH. Only then can we hope to play a constructive role in making for Christmas, and for all the other important religious celebrations, occasions permeated with peace, joy, and good will to/for all!!!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 23rd, 2006 at 9:52 am and is filed under National Politics, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.