SURGE, SHMURGE

If you haven’t yet been to the newly reopened Griffith Observatory, do yourself a favor. Peggy and I, co-authors of the soon-to-be-released, “Party Till Your Pacemaker Squeaks,” caught a shuttle at the Kodak Theater complex, rode up the hill, and learned a little something about our world. The earth, in case you didn’t know, is just one of eight planets in our particular solar system – it used to be nine, but Pluto got the boot when NASA downsized – our solar system is one of billions of solar systems in our galaxy, the Milky Way, which is only one of billions of galaxies in the known universe. From that point of view, whether or not George W. Bush decides to send another 30,000 soldiers to Iraq probably don’t mean spit.

The thing is, it’s tough to maintain that point of view. Every one of those 30,000 men and women, many of whom will doubtless return home in flag-draped coffins, is someone’s child, someone's parent, a sibling, or a best friend. And whatever it is Bush thinks he’s doing, it isn’t worth one of those lives.

Chris Mathews of MSNBC’s “Hardball” has a new mantra. Every time he interviews someone on the question of this surge he says, “Do we really want to see American kids, who do not speak Arabic, walking up and down the streets of Baghdad, kicking in doors, killing Sunnis and getting shot?” Personally, I don’t.

Regardless of who is “right” about Iraq, George W. Bush committed an act of unspeakable arrogance when he told the U. N. that the U. S. was above the law. If any other world leader had made that speech we would have called him a tyrant, and we would have been right. America has become the rogue state.

I will be writing to my congressman and telling him to get off his ass and stop this crazy fuck. I hope you do the same.

A foot on either side.

Bartley B