Three years. Three years of war. Two thousand three hundred and ten Americans killed. Two thousand three hundred and ten families shattered. Seventeen thousand one hundred and twenty-four Americans have been wounded, about eight thousand, severely wounded, removed from the field with missing limbs, paralyzed for life, blinded, with brain injuries, and other unimaginable horrors. The good news about battlefield medicine is that they are saving more of the wounded than ever before. The bad news is that these people are far more grieveiously wounded than soldiers from other wars. In the past they died. Now they are living with their horrific wounds.

Iraqi dead? Colin Powell was insulted when asked about the enemy dead. He made it clear we would not count them. At a minimum 37,754 civilians are dead. Estimates range up much, much higher.

Everything changed with 911. That is the Republican mantra. Democrats live in a pre-911 world view, they say. What if . . . nothing changed with 911? Ever thought about that? What if we had not invaded a country unprovoked? What if we had not lied to the world about the reasons for the war? What if we had spent 250 billion dollars on improving the world instead of destroying it? Do you think that money would have had impact if spent around the middle east? Could the Palestinians have been uplifted? Could education have become available throughout the middle east? Could new industries and job opportunities have been provided to make their hopeless conditions into meaningful lives? Would the world not have looked at us as the most gracious and significant people in the history of mankind, sacrificing to give away 250 billion dollars to uplift the world? Would other countries have followed suit?

I think that nothing has changed. 911 was an insult to our national psyche of isolation and safety. Immigration is a big issue right now (this election cycle's homosexual marriage), because we aren't quite isolated from poverty in Middle and South American countries. Rather than a change in the world, the reason for the current war is that our cowboy preznit has and Alexander the Great complex. These "rule the world" ideas are not new. Think Napoleon. Think Hitler. Think Hirohito. Think British Empire. Think Ghengis Khan. Think Caesar. There are lots of examples.

Let's go from macro to micro for a moment.
I have two kinds of problems with my auditions for singers every year. Mostly, the students lack confidence. Their fear is in their way a bit. They pull back and use less air or they rush in a panic during their sight singing. But there are rare students with another, more difficult problem. These students sing loudly out of tune, or they crash through the tonal memory and sight singing and say, "well that wasn't so hard." The problem is, they did terribly. They are bad at singing and all its accompaning skills, AND, they have absolutely no idea. I remember the child who could not match pitch who told us, "Music is my life. I'm going to be a professional singer when I grow up." I had a similar audition this week. She is a problem child in class on the days she shows up. She lectured me before we started saying, "Now Dr. G, I don't want you marking me down because you just don't like me. If I make an A choir with my audition, you should be fair to me and put me in an A choir." It was the fourth worst audition of the year, so far. How do you get that out of touch with reality? It is a mystery to me. Same as . . . (zoom out to macro)

Yes, the preznit is such a person. Full of bold (if totally out of touch) vision. He's failed miserably at everything he has done in life, but supported by his father's cartel, he's become the worst president in history, a manical idiot, pushing vain, horrible ideas. His supporters are even afraid of him now because he pushes their causes beyond the breaking point. People are starting to disbelieve their regular line of lies.

And when is there victory in Iraq? When do they come home?

There is never victory. They will never come home. Do you get it now?