The Intellect of a Chimpanzee

While listening to NPR this morning, I heard Mr. Bush say, "and the terrorists can wait 6 months in a day." I nearly drove off the road I was laughing so hard. And that brings me to the point of today's rant. How can someone with the intellect of a chimpanzee muster nearly 50% support in the polls? What I hear is that toughness and decisiveness are his strong qualities and rallying points. I have to say that these attributes are all well and good if, the decision being made has some brainpower behind it and being tough doesn't get anyone killed unecessarily.

Military men and women of high rank are trained to be decisive and tough but I'll bet if you ask any of them what the most important criteria is that leads up to these finalities, you'll get answers like: facts, compassion, regard for human life (casualties)and long term strategic interests. I don't really see any of these considerations in most of this administration's actions with the exception of some misguided notion about what the middle east ought to look like long term. I say, who cares?

Since, long term, oil will run out in favor of alternative fuels, the Arab countries that are lucky enough to have oil don't have much time to get what they can out of it. In my view, as long as the price of oil is relatively stable, then we shouldn't have a problem with middle eastern nations and Bush shouldn't either. In fact, from a strategic perspective, we should use all their oil before we go drilling for our own- don't you think?

I don't think risking people's lives going to war under the thin veil of fostering terrorism had anything to do with long term strategic interests. In fact, all its managed to do is push the price of oil up. This is where the most damage is done and don't think this isn't lost on the terrorists. I'm sure they would love to see this administration bumble their way through a few more years at the top. Question is, can we afford it? You'll have to answer this for yourself.

As your contemplating this, consider that 1000 of us have died...for what? A few wacko Egyptians who managed to hijack some planes (no disrespect to the families who lost people in 9/11)? Was losing another third as many Americans worth what's going on in Iraq? You'll have to answer this for yourself.

We would all do well to remind ourselves that terrorism takes on many forms. Its not limited to Arabs and/or Muslims. Christians, Catholic and Protestants have been hashing it out for centuries too. This conflict will continue as long as we are intolerant or unhappy with our lot. It will not stop until we see ourselves in each other and can laugh about our differences and similarities. It will not stop until governments are secular and tolerant of philosophical differences. Can you really defend against terrorism by waging war against an entire population. You'll have to decide that for yourself.

Do you think President Bush is running a secular administration consistent with the constitutional edict for a separation between church and state? If you don't think he is, then can you see that there are only marginal differences between us and the theocracies we wage war against? If you think he is, then isn't his administration acting in direct conflict with the constitution? You decide.