While I'm ordinarily a peace-nik and strive to believe that rational men and women can address their differences and resolve them peacefully, the attacks of 9/11/2001 did change the scenario worldwide -- whether we like it or not. The fools in the Bush administration not only took on a knee-jerk reaction and started the "excise Al Qaeda" campaign in Afghanistan, then they parlayed that into a needless war in Iraq. Now with Iraq supposedly "winding down" the military (which can never be wrong in always asking for "more, more!") has convinced our new President to up the stakes.

Wars have consequences. Especially wars funded with no-bid contracts that enrich friends of Cheney and company. The national balance sheet was never in better shape when Clinton left office and it was never worse than when Obama took the oath of office. We may yet see a history of the world in which the slow decline of the entire world economy can be marked from financial and war decisions made between 2001 and 2009. (I am not, by nature, a doom-sayer, but you've got to wonder.)

You've also got to wonder about the legitimacy of the current military advice about Afghanistan when Der Spiegel opines "Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric -- and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught." (See the full piece here.)