Most people will always remember the image of US Marine Chin from Brooklyn, NY putting the American and Iraqi flags over the face of Saddam on that statue or the dancing when it was pulled down. I will never foregt the live satellite images of the 3rd Infantry Division on the reconn in force, "the Thunder Run" through western Baghdad. I was transfixed for hours watching the replays of lines of Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles tooling down the road and blasting anything that the Air Force didn't hit first. It was incredible, but then I saw a video shot by Craig White of MSNBC which was taken during that same "Thunder Run." My respect,admiration and pride in the United States Armed Forces cannot be put into words.

Between the media and the reluctance of our President down through the chain of command not to "share" their intelliegence and "The War Plan" with the world at large or even a "respected military analyist" with the New York Times, the world was hoodwinked into believing that the "vaunted" Republican Guard, the Special Republican Guard and the Elite Republican Guard were a great milltary force that would defend their country and their capital. I dare say our military leaders knew from the beginning that they were not anywhere close to the American or British soldier and Marine. Not in education, training, physical conditioning, weaponry, equipment, tactics or leadership. Another part of the great hoax was that thousands of Iraqis would stand and fight to save their "country" from the invasion. And the last part of the hoax was that "devout" Iraqi Muslims would take up arms to defeat the Infidels. Like you I was surprised to learn that the Iraqis employed terror on their own populace to fight, guerilla warfare is acceptable, using civilians as human shields is not. Using churches, mosques and hospitals as strongpoints is also forbidden and most of all using the white flag of surrender to kill is beyond contempt.

Since I don't get Al-Jaazera or any other Arab news channel on my cable system I'm sure that these comtempible people are "heroes" but the shame in the Arab world must be incredible. Yes they must be ashamed that fellow Arabs, who have been tortured for plus thirty years by a monster, his family and the Ba'ath party did not fight for Arab "dignity." The celebrations of their freedom from tyranny must be a shock for them to see. The Arabs, the Germans, the Russians and of course the French preferred that the world allow a mass murderer to continue in power and "talk him into surrender."

I guess I haven't been paying attention to world events, its only been in the last couple of weeks that I heard that Saddam Hussein is responsible for the deaths of three million Iraqis. That's 3,000,000 people. What the hell is wrong with the world when a country's leader can kill a million people each decade? What the hell is wrong with the Arabs when one of their own kills three million of their own people and they still defend him.? What the hell is wrong with Eason Jordan of CNN? Was CNN's access to Baghdad's leadership more important that the lives of Iraqi citizens? In some circles CNN is being lauded for hiding the atrocities and thereby protecting their Iraqi employees and contacts but if they simply walked out of Iraq and kept the dirty secrets to themselves they would have accomplished the same thing. How many Iraqis did they put in mortal danger over the years as they maintained their "access"?

I also have to ask what the hell is wrong with Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen, Ed Asner, Janeane Garofalo and all the rest of the "intellectual celebrities." I hope they didn't know that Saddam was a butcher, or is their animosity towards George W. Bush and the Republican Party so deep that the sufferring of the Iraqis is of no consequence? Martin Sheen called President Bush a moron, I'm waiting for him to offer an apology. In the meantime he keeps playing president on NBC's show, West Wing. Never watched it before, don't intend to now. How much you want to bet it is not on the TV schedule next Fall? It wasn't drawing a good market share before the war, I think it may have dropped since. Oh yeah, Janeane Garofalo she promised to apologize to the President if she was proved wrong but she's changed her mind now and won't.

I can forgive Senator John Kerry for his huge error in judgement by calling for a "regime change" in the United States. He probably thought it was a cool play on words and even though he has refused to acknowledge it was a mistake I'll let him slide. You see, he made his name by going to Vietnam for a short tour, received three Purple Hearts for three very minor wounds and then took off for home and became a big time Vietnam War protestor. I think he must have had a crush on Hanoi Jane Fonda. In my eyes he's was traitor to his country and all the servicemen and women in the Armed Forces so I would never vote for him. What is a big deal is the sheer idiocy of US Congresswoman and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. It was proof to me that the power players in the Democratic party are really out of touch with reality. Get this, I'm a registered Democrat.

The best comments though come from former US President William Jefferson Clinton on Tuesday April 15th who spoke at a seminar of governance organized by Conference Board at the Plaza Hotel in NYC:

"Our paradigm now seems to be: something terrible happened to us on September 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us, And if they don't, they can go straight to hell."

"Since September 11, it looks like we can't hold two guns at the same time. If you fight terrorism, you can't make America a better place to be." (Redux: It's the Economy Stupid)

"We can't run, If you got an interdependent world, and you cannot kill, jail or occupy all your adversaries, sooner or later you have to make a deal."

Yes Bill, let's make a deal, just like all the deals you made. We should have made a deal with Saddam and the boys. Screw the Iraqi people. Bill you were such a great leader of the free world, respected by the masses, you made us so proud to be Americans. One thing Bill don't you think its rather crass to make clearly divisive, partisan political commentary while we are in the middle of a war? I mean Bill there is no election this month or next month, I think its in November. Sorry my mistake, crass is apparently not in your dictionary.

I wonder if the Republicans will take me after all those years I was a registered Democrat.

Looting and Chaos: Remember those pictures from the Gulf War, the ones of the Iraqis looting Kuwait and making a beeline north? Its a damn shame that the Iraqis looted their own hospitals, national museum and library but kindly note that they were Iraqis, not Americans. Flashback to World War II, the Germans looted everything they laid their hands on while the Russians stripped everything they didn't destroy and shipped it home. I almost choked when Tim Russert of NBC's Meet the Press attempted to ask Secretary Rumsfeld, "How we could allow the museum to be looted." Rumsfeld cut him down but lets be frank about it, bad guys are shooting real guns with real bullets all over the place and a Marine is supposed to abandon his post to stop a guy with a vase or an air conditioner. Tough luck for Iraq but no soldier or Marine should die for "loot." What about the chaos though, no water, power, health care, etc? Well if we were like the Russians in WWII we wouldn't be working on getting the electricity generation and water pumping plants back on stream we would be taking the machinery out. Maybe the whole problem here is due to our need for immediate gratification, afterall we got to see some of the war live on TV, the media expected the war to last three days and roared when it didn't happen. Now one week after Baghdad falls everything is supposed to be back to normal. Who cut off their power and water - Good Old Saddam and his boys!

Like many people I'm getting tired of hearing the hourly demands of various Iraqis and really tired of hearing, "What the Arab world wants." I'm not indifferent to the basic needs of the Iraqis and their natural desire for all the basics of life but please - EVERYONE give us a chance to get things organized and running. As for the "Arab World," Bite Me, you've done squat for the world and your own citizens for the last 500 years. What do you do you in "the Arab World" actually do? When I look at the stats for Saudi Arabia I am shocked. You don't do anything except pump and ship crude oil. You exported $66.9 billion in 2002 but 90% was oil. What do you make? What do you add to the world of any value? Phamaceuticals, machine tools, silicone chips, electronics, dialysis or other medical equipment, cars, trucks, buses, planes, ships, heavy equipment or trains? None of them, wow do you think that makes you a great culture, a people to be admired or respected? Yes I admit that Saudi Arabia only has a population of 23.5 million but aren't you lucky that you could bring in +5.3 million "foreigners" to actually work. That gives you lots of free time to complain, but just be thankful for two things, one; poor third world countries that send you "workers" and two, no one has developed a reliable alternative to oil yet. When they do, you'll be back herding camels and eating sand because you have done nothing to gain the respect of the modern world. By the way if you want us to re-build Iraq like we did for Germany and Japan how's about a little patience and reducing the rhetoric - stop complaining, constantly whining, just take a deep breath and come up for air! Better yet just go watch the camel races or pay a visit to your infidel prostitute. Then go pray.

Wait here's a novel idea that is sure to solve many problems in "the Arab World." How's about all those foreign workers in Saudi Arabia are sent home and +5,000,000 Palestinians are re-settled in Saudi Arabi to do thier jobs? Won't work, why not? Don't all Arabs love the Palestinians? Well maybe not, I don't think five million Palestinians would appreciate being servants and second class citizens for too long. They might want a fair share of the pie even though they aren't "royalty."

I am also getting tired of the media demanding us to find the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), right now! We're going to find them, it will take awhile since Saddam was apparently digging bunkers all over the country for the last five years. I don' think we're going to invade Syria, just push them around a bit, but I wonder how much WMD found its way into that country, along with Iraqi leadership and Ba'ath party members. Do you think that President Bush is going to keep the CIA and Special Ops from going into Syria and quietly eliminating bad guys? I bet they are there already and more on the way.

Interim Govermment and Reconstruction - Whew now here's a big job and NO ONE has the answers yet. I think the Interim Government should last as long as we want, don't care if its one year or seven years like we had in Japan. I don't want to see all our effort, money and blood go down the tubes so a bunch of whacko Muslim imans can turn Iraq back to the 11th century like Afghanistan or a totalitarian Islamic state like Iran. What a waste! As long as we can help foster true democracy and mold Iraq into a secular free country I'm willing to pay. Even if President Bush wanted an extra thousand dollar income tax surcharge on every American household to pay for reconstruction I'd be happy to fork over the money. Only one caveat - no big contracts for the "Axis of Weasels." Yep its going to be a Loooooooong time before I look at a German, French or Russian made product, I've even given up Brie! That's not a hoax!