PRACTICE FOR 'MY TURN'

where am i goin to go on this. should i be aggressive, or passive?
i guess that would heavily depend on the time of day, and what drug.

ok, here we go:

####>
I have been sitting here watching cable news channels, and the 60 minutes story is on fire. Maybe not here in America, but you can bet your life that the images of American torture in Saddam's old torture prison, Abu Ghraib, have made us lose whatever respect we had about this war from almost every corner of the globe.

I'm sorry, but that's just not something I can be proud of.

Yes, the few who are guilty of smiling in these torture sessions, standing proud over their victims, should not reflect the rest of America. We all know that. The problem is, will the rest of the world. Our credibility was already treading on thin ice. We hardly need to dig ourselves deeper in this mess.

Supporting the troops is still the #1 priority that this country should be having right now. We are at war. Or so we're told. Usually, a war has a goal. One that usually is not won by reduction, but rather elimination of the threat. And in all previous cases, that threat was not something we have created. This time, however, we have a whole new game unfolding. It's detailed in a document called the PNAC: Project for the New American Century. Google that and be prepared to have your jaws drop.

But our troops are dying at an unacceptable rate, and for what? We were first told about weapons of mass destruction. You remember those don't you? If FOX had its way, you wouldn't. Then we were told that they had nukes. Well, we all know what happened there. From that point on, things started to get a bit ugly, and some really far-fetched ideas were borne, and we now were in this liberation mode. Providing freedom to a people that have been so oppresed by, oops, someone we helped. And not just someone, the very same people who are in power now. Oh the irony.

The families of many of the troops have taken collections, and done other benefits to raise money to buy the simple things, like armour for our men & women over there. This is just outrageous. This is like saying to your employer, I'm going to pay YOU this year. We need to furnish our troops with the necessities of battleground war. The very fact that we're in this "guerilla" war, makes it all the more unlikely that our troops have the experience our enemies have.

The president was indeed right when he stated (for once) that this was a war that would last a long time. He's confident of his next term. Too confident. The electronic voting & internet voting, should be closely scrutinized, like California. Voting is the very heart of our democracy. And it's up to the American people (still) to control how we play in this sandbox we call Earth.