After the Elections

The elections last month were as good as we had any right to expect, I suppose, and let’s hope that the legislative change next month leads to a real change in this country’s misguided direction. Unlikely but, like miracles, it could happen. Things are so bad now on so many fronts that even if the Democratic majority does show some spine and make many much needed changes, it’s anyone’s guess how much worse things will get before they get better, whatever better may mean. In Iraq, which we invaded for Cheney’s Halliburton and friends in March of 2003 and have now been in longer than we were in World War II, untold thousands of Iraqis have been killed and are getting killed as I write. The Iraqis are certainly far worse off today than they were under Saddam Hussein (who as anyone with a brain knew from the beginning played no part in the 9/11 attack). Far fewer of that country’s citizens died under Saddam’s monstrous watch than have died under ours, and the country’s public utilities worked. The first step in any solution, for us at least, should be to get out at once, since we’re not going to stop the civil war we caused, and the billions we’re spending in Iraq might be used to help stop some of the misery at home— what happened to New Orleans and especially its poor is the shame of this nation—and even prevent some of the terrorism that almost certainly will be coming our way sooner or later.