Do You Feel Safer?

From My Own Little Corner I haven't written in a while as I have been busy reading. I just finished "Bushworld" by Maureen Dowd. What a good book. It is chocked full of information that is written in an easy to follow and humorous manner. I am now in the process of reading "The One Percent Doctrine" by Ron Suskind. Both books revealed behind the scenes information that is both troubling and scary. This man that was "elected" to run our country and his idea of the "war on terror", his ideas on how he needs to "protect us", and the means that he will use to further his own agenda, and that of his cohorts, are quite frankly, in my own opinion, egocentric and nuts. The scariest part is that he truly believes that he is going to be remembered by history as one of the greatest leaders our country has ever had. I have been listening to some of the speeches that he has been giving over the last few weeks and am both amazed and puzzled. Amazed that he has the nerve to continue to attempt to link Iraq and the 9/11 attacks, that he has had the temerity to say that we have "defeated the Taliban", to tell us that we are safer without Saddam Hussein in power, and then turn around and tell us that we are still at great risk of additional terrorist attacks. That is why I am puzzled. If the Taliban was truly responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, then why did we invade Iraq? The Taliban were headquartered in Afghanistan, a country that we invaded shortly after 9/11 to try to find Osama Bin Laden (rightly so), and that now we seem to have completely forgotten. The violence there and the resurgence of Taliban activity and their seemingly organized attacks, seems to prove that we have not "defeated the Taliban", but only pissed them off even more. Osama bin Laden is still out there planning and plotting, and GWB and his administration recently disbanded the Osama task force. This was the force responsible for tracking down the man behind the 9/11 attacks. And by moving into Iraq and attempting to set up our own brand of government and democracy, we have just given the terrorists more fuel for the fire. Al-Qaeda is more determined than ever to get us out of there and have join forces with other terrorist cells, including the Taliban, to form what appears to me to be a much stronger, better organized, and more extreme cell. For want of a better term-super terrorists. These terrorists are much scarier than the ones that existed just after 9/11. In their zeal to tie Saddam to the terror attacks of 9/11, this administration has given the terrorists what they always wanted and never had, a reason (in their own insane thought processes) to truly hate us. If they really needed a cause, other than hating us for our beliefs and lifestyle, we have given it to them. I certainly don't feel safer. Do you? And now we are hearing the same rhetoric from our leaders that we heard before the invasion of Iraq. "We won't talk to this country until they do as we say." "We are not making plans for war, just updating the plans that were already in place." "The people are repressed." The IAEA has stated the information that is being spoon fed to us about IRAN's nuclear ambitions and capabilities are being exaggerated. Does all this sound familiar? It's deja vu all over again. Hopefully, this time around, our REPUBLICAN congress will not be bamboozled into doing the same foolish things that they did before, the things that led us into this mess that we have in Iraq. In less than 2 months we will be having an election. It's time for regime change. Bush, his boys and girls, did it in Iraq and I hope that the citizens will do it in the United States. In the meantime, please pray for peace and enlightenment. I will, and may your personal God bless and keep you and yours.

A Great Man

From My Own Little Corner I awoke this morning to the tragic news of the death of a great man. His death was shocking. What was even more shocking was my reaction. I cried. I cried for his family and I cried for the loss of the things that he could have continued to teach the world. He wasn't great in the ways that we often associate with greatness. He was a man that used his God given talents to teach the world that all God's creatures are special and should be valued. His untimely death brought back many of my own memories. Sitting with my two young boys, anxiously awaiting the appointed time of his next lesson on wildlife. Watching with delight as my boys saw the value of the world's wildlife and waited with wide eyed excitement to see what his next adventure would bring. The hours that we spent as a family watching, then discussing what he had to teach us are part of my favorite memories. We watched as he first met and then married his wife. We watched as his daughter was born and again when the world was outraged when he held his son while feeding a crocodile. We watched him build a great zoo and wildlife refuge from the monies made showing the world the many exotic animals that he so loved. This man showed my children that even the ugliest and most viscious animals are an important part of our world and need to be protected. He gave my sons a love of all God's creatures that coincided with my own teachings. He was probably the strongest influence on my eldest son, who loves reptiles and has a red tailed boa named Madeline and an american alligator named Precious. We will miss his teachings and his enthusiasm. As I said he wasn't great in the ways that we often associate with greatness, but, as you can see, he was great in some of the ways that count the most. He loved his family, his crocs, and lived life with a zest that is not often seen. By crikey, we will miss you here at our house. God speed, Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter.