JUDGMENT DAY!

We have spent 800 Billion on the Iraq War, and we are still spending money on the Iraq War. It looks as though we may be spending on the Iraq War or the Iraq Peace, if it ever comes, into infinity. Yet, despite this tremendous burden, Republicans have hit the ceiling because of the possible costs of Health Care Reform. Isn't it a shame that we did not say "No" (the Republican Favorite Word) to the Iraq War, which was needless, and spent that money instead guaranteeing good health care for every American?

As they complain about the Public Option, they fail to come up with any alternatives. We have millions of Americans with no Health Insurance at all. Eventually, especially as they age, they will have health problems, as we all do. So, do the Republicans plan on leaving these people on the sidewalks, suffering and dying before our very eyes? Or will they fork over the billions it will take to help these indigent people when they are sick? Wouldn't it be better to vote for this Health Reform now, covering every citizen, to avoid these tremendous costs that are someday inevitable?

At one time, Republicans fought like tigers against the Medicare bill. Now they finance Ads to scare the Seniors by warning them there will be Medicate cuts, something that just isn't true. Suddenly, Republicans have become the advocates...the defenders...of the very system they fought so hard to defeat!

There was also a ruckus over the size of the Health Care Reform bill, which looks like the pages of a novel the size of Gone With the Wind. However, they passed...without hesitation...the 900 page Patriot Act, which none of them had taken the time to read. The Patriot Act gives a President the right to slam you in jail on mere suspicion, carry you away to any prison anywhere, without a chance to call your family or get an attorney on the line. Yet, they passed it without a single Advertisement against it. They didn't say a word about the 900 pages they didn't have time to read, pages that officially squashed the Civil Rights so cherished in the American culture.

Every so often, Dick Cheney appears from the shadows to regale us with his opinion of the Obama Administration, which seems to be similar to my opinion of a den of rats chewing on a corpse. Cheney appears before the cameras, more or less prodding the President into a quicker move into War. Oh, how they loved War, these old politicians, it was their answer to every problem in the world, and Dick Cheney seemed to love War above any other sensible action. In our current entertaining fascination with vampires, Cheney would be an excellent choice for the leader of an underground bloodsucking group, seeking the nourishment of Muslim blood, eying Iran with hungry fervor! Yes, that would be a movie worth seeing.

Does Dick Cheney not know that his time in office is over? Does he believe that any sane person would want him back in a governmental position? How many people does he want to kill in the violence of bloodshed before one of those stints in his damaged heart gives out for good? If Obama is taking his time to make a terrifying decision, a decision on sending 40,000 more young Americans to War, well, then, bless him! Take all the time you need, Mr. President, lest we end up with another Viet Nam and the memory of some 60,000 dead soldiers fades into history.

There have been times when War is inevitable, when our nation has been attacked and retaliation is necessary. Nine Eleven was one of those times, but perhaps someone will explain to me in a rational way just how we ended up fighting in Iraq? When bin Laden was cornered in Tora Bora, I hoped, I prayed, that he would be captured or killed, his minions diminished, the whole nasty onslaught of terror and terrorists fade into history. Instead, bin Laden escaped and the nightmare continued. We turned our back on Afghanistan and one would have thought that bin Laden took up residence in Saddam Hussein's palace. Suddenly, according to Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld, the danger was in Iraq, instead of the Pakistani Mountains where bin Laden had fled.

We should leave the governance of the Middle East to the Middle Easterners. We have no business dangling Democracy over the heads of any other country and demanding they install a government like our own. Back when the Founding Fathers wrote our Constitution, our people fought and died for the freedom of this country, for freedom from tyranny, for freedom of speech, religion and all of the other blessed liberties we enjoy. The citizens of other countries need to do the same, rise up against these corrupt leaders and fight for the right to live peacefully and well.

Will this happen? Probably not, but let's hope that the Republicans will decide that, if we must spend all of that money, let's do it on benefiting the American people instead of inventing a War.

Thus, the huge expenditures and Halliburton nonsense continued, and Dick Cheney led the way, behind the scenes, always shrouded in shadows, a grim, menacing figure who had suddenly gained a power he had never earned. He was Vice President and I think he really lived up to the Vice part of it. It seemed as though President George W. Bush listened to Cheney with both ears, even though he claimed he listened to his "Other Father." Cheney was the dark, mysterious figure in the background, the director advising the actors exactly how to find the path to war.

It's over now, and it is only the calm steadiness of Barack Obama that has kept the public from demanding the prosecution of both Bush and Cheney. War crimes might be just one of the crimes they could be charged with. Lying to the public, torture, mishandling intelligence and using it to fulfil their own goals, outing a Secret Agent, misusing taxpayer's funds...all of this could be wrapped up into a believable case. Only President Obama stood between this ordeal and the prosecution of these two men. On the one hand, such trials may have divided the country even further and taken its minds away from the problems at hand. On the other hand, it would have cleared the air and taught the nation that not even a President and his advisors can break the law.

As in the case of Nixon, Americans usually swallow the grievances, forget the abuses, and continue on their way.....unless it is the Republicans and Bill Clinton, then the Gavel crashes down and it's Judgment Day! Perhaps the best we can hope for is that someday, in the future, the two perpetrators of the Iraq War Hoax and the fiasco that followed will face a much Higher Authority on Judgment Day!