I don't really want to sound all pessimistic about Iraq but I guess in truth I am. I really don't buy into any of this stuff that gets circulated via email and is an obvious political plug. Perhaps I'm too cynical. I think the thing is just looking at Iraq from a common sense standpoint there's a lot about it that doesn't make sense.

I don't see any sense in a dreamy eyed vision of Iraq as a democracy. It seems fairly insane that nobody from the Bush administration seems to be able to articulate a plan for this grand scheme. In general we get cliche and nonsense.

"We will stay the course."

"We'll be there as long as it takes."

"We are committed to a free Iraq."

They never say what the plan is, what course they are on, or how they plan to create this "free" Iraq. The president has no answers when asked who he will turn the country over to, what will happen when they do, and what it means exactly when they say "turn it over" because it seems to be just a phrase. Sort of frightening isn't it?  Where not very far from that June 30 date and we seem to be heading toward a worse situation where troops are being held over and they need more. So, why should I be happy that they are telling people to wash their hands? Sort of makes it sound as if these people are so stupid we actually have to tell them/teach them to wash. Like we were dealing with children.

I'm not really impressed with the list, it's pretty lame, and the info is from 2003. We are in 2004 and the picture there changed rather radically in the last 3 months. So they have electricity in their homes about 8 to 12 hours a day, if they are lucky. That's nice. The hospitals are open and we killed 1000 Iraqis in less than a month. Great. They wash their hands while we launch air strikes. Peachy. Iran and Syria are maneuvering to play a part in the new Iraq and they have school books with no photos of Saddam. Awesome! 

I don't know Marc. I'd like to be full of the sort of warm and fuzzy feelings you guys have about the whole thing but I just don't have it in me.

When I talked to my cousin Ryan after his first tour in Iraq he did not have nice things to say. I tried to provide encouragement. He been there for quite a while now on his second tour and it looks like he won't home anytime soon. He's a Marine and last I heard he was west of Baghdad. I haven't heard anything since then. He's been in the midst of it though. God willing he'll be home safe and sound sometime in the near future and when he is perhaps I've give you a first hand Marine's account of what he saw. I've got a gut feeling it won't be pretty. He was not happy after his first tour. This time around seems far worse.

Oh, I also have a friend in Uzbekistan. I don't know what his deal is because I haven't heard a word from him since he went. He was scheduled to return in June but I'm sure that's no longer the case.