Al-Qaeda is more effective as the result of having safe havens in Iraq. Where it had no presence before Bush.

The Taliban is more influential in Afghanistan and Pakistan since Bush has declared war.

The Iraqis are worse off since Bush. As are the Afghanistanis.

Has the cost been what was promised? In dollars? In the loss of moral leadership? In the cost in lives and families? Of course not. Most people would prefer something positive for their money and lives.

The money have been better spent sending a man to Mars, purchasing medical care for citzens, building schools and libraries and staffing them, all around the world.

Now the "homeland" hasn't had a major attack in a few years. And the last one was preventable, EXCEPT that such an attack didn't rise to the level of consciousness of our leaders? ("Who would have thought?") Does the fact that anyone who doesn't like the US can attack almost anywhere else mean anything? Has it been worth inflicting one WTC-equivalent per month on Iraq?

One terrorist act by Saudi Arabians can't justify wars against two countries which had nothing to do with it. That the Bush's are friends of Saudi Arabians and benefit financially from their support doesn't justify not holding Saudi Arabia more responsible for WTC than Iraq, who had no citizens or money involved, or Afghanistan, who had no citizens or money involved.

Is everyone except the most jaded ideologue wrong to think it's always been about oil with a religious subplot?

It's all obvious. America wasn't wrong, the American people believed the President. The problem is as Grisham said, we are led by immoral people with bad intent. Americans misplaced their trust.

The author of "The Road Less Travelled" in another book defined "evil" as a betrayal of trust, as when a parent uses a child's trust for the parent's benefit and not for that of the child. One could include a president, who used the trust of a nation against the nation's interests and to promote his own.

And is it a quagmire yet? If so, when did it turn into a quagmire? If not, do quagmires exist at all, or are they like unicorns, airy-fairy creations of a liberal mind, impossible in a Conservative world?

Arf

Arf

Arf