GW Bush - obstinancy bordering on madness?

Our esteemed president, George W. Bush, is sounding more and more like a broken record on the war in Iraq, not too surprising given that he has a broken record on many fronts so far.
Bush seems bent on his mantra of completing the "mission" in Iraq, so that the loss of the 2,000 plus American soldiers who have died in this conflict were not lost in vain.
This argument seems analgous to someone who sticks his hand under a running lawnmower and loses a finger, then proceeds to place his hand there further so that the finger was not "lost in vain", in order to complete the original mission. We are losing our appendages when we should be reassessing why we lost our finger in the first place.
The way out of Iraq is through honesty - apologize to the world and our country for mistakes that were made - in intelligence, in hubris, in viewing the world through faith-based eyes rather than reality based vision. Make a concerted effort to reform the intelligence community so that information used to go to war is correct and verified. Finally, redirect our war on terror with good intelligence as the foundation. The war on terror does not need stealth bombers or a $350 billion/year military infrastructure to succeed - it needs correct intelligence and a focus on terrorist leaders. A snake cannot slither too long with it's head removed. In other words, it's about Osama, stupid!
Until we get real leadership on the war on terror, American soldiers will continue to die in vain under George W. Bush's lack of leadership. The obstinante refrain of "completing the mission", "staying the course" will be the death knell for thousands more Americans in our military.

A cure for cancer?

Yes, there is a cure for cancer, and we've known about it for some time - it's called quit smoking, don't become obese, don't drink too much, and don't be too sedentary.
Despite the hoopla surrounding the technologic future of medicine, who tout high-tech solutions to diagnosing and treating cancer, so little is focused on the fact that what we do to our bodies plays a significant role in the diseases we develop. Just look at the major causes of death in the US - it's ridiculous how much smoking, drinking, obesity, and inactivity contribute to our morbidity and mortality.
Certainly there are factors besides habits that contribute to cancer risk - genes, and other non-modifyable environmental exposures, but why is the simple message of healthy living ignored?
It seems like we would much rather take high-tech chemotherapy treatment than change our habits to prevent cancer from developing in the first place.
This article highlights that an estimated 10% of cancer could be prevented if there were no obesity.
It seems the toughest pill for us to swallow is the one that forces us to change our habits, even if it is cheaper and more cost effective than almost every other treatment available.

America's Military - A Noble Cause or a Modern Meatgrinder?

With the pseudo-patriotic milieu permeating our nation in the midst of a war on terror, we should take pause to critically evaluate our American military.
While the current leadership in our country seems to tout the virtues of military service, a critic might ask, what does military service really mean these days? As a soldier, one is at the mercy of a chain of command. One's life is essentially in the hands of others, specifically a civilian leadership elected by a slim majority of Americans. What might happen if America elects a madman as commander-in-chief, someone who does not believe any casualties would result from war?
This reality exists today. We have a commander-in-chief, elected to serve all Americans, yet given power by only a slim majority, who is egging on a war on terror with an obstinate will. Iraq today likely harbors more than 200,000 insurgents or insurgent supporters, against a US military force of about 158,000. Sure, our military has sophisticated weapons that no other country or scrubby insurgency could match, but they have advantages we will never have - being able to melt into the civilian population, familiarity with their home turf, and a population growing more and more weary of an occupational force capable of miscreant and abusive behavior.
For those looking for historic parallels, I would recommend watching "The Battle of Algiers" by Gillo Pontecorvo.
It's also quite apparent that America's efforts against the Iraqi insurgency are nowhere near as effective as Colonel Mathieu's efforts on behalf of French colonialism in Algeria.
The reality on the ground, it appears, is that Iraq has become a modern meatgrinder for our American military, and our leadership has no plans to make it any better. We have already spilled lots of blood, so we don't want such sacrifice to go in vein, so we keep trudging along, sacrificing more blood.
The other critical lens to view our military with is to see that it has its share of psychopaths. Examples of such individuals and their behavior include the outrageous abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the murders of innocent Iraqi civilians by our military, and the comments of certain military leadership, such as Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who says it's "fun" to shoot people.
Would you want people like this to babysit your children?
In order to win the hearts and minds of any people, we need a military that exemplifies what is good about America. To maintain such a military, we should have swift and severe punishment towards those in military service who undermine our values and help spread fear and hatred in those we are trying to help.
Let us not forget, as well, that the man behind the largest domestic terrorist attack in our country's history, the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on Oklahoma City, was the decorated Army veteran Timothy McVeigh.
One would hope the current crucible of military duty in Iraq does not breed more McVeighs for our country to deal with in future years.
Advise for young, impressionable men and women who might consider service in our armed forces - think twice, unless you like taking your chances in a modern meatgrinder, under the orders of a faith-based commander-in-chief.

A perspective on Post 9/11 America

America should have seen the light, instead we run to embrace the darkness. In the aftermath of 9/11, America was a victim of religious extremists. In reaction to these attacks, America has responded by running for comfort into the arms of religious extremism, in the form of Christian radicals. Rather than see the evils of religious extremism for what they are and reject them forthright, we coddle and empower radical religous zealotry in response.

It is as if America, as a victim of Islamic radicals, were trying to say, we have a God better than yours, our God, speaking through the Bible, will save and guide us from those who attack us in the name of Allah.

We need to wake up and see that this is all a fantasy - adults playing make believe. There is no God, Christian or otherwise, or Allah, merciful or otherwise.

Looking over the course of history, we see the ills that radical religious beliefs spawn - the violence, the senseless deaths, the conflicts. Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, all have killed or been killed in the name of their "God" at one time or other.

The way out, the way to a secure future is to embrace secularism, to embrace science, reason, and logic, to encourage critical thinking, to build more libraries and fewer churches. In this era of scientific "miracles", we need to raise our awareness above the superstitious and groundless beliefs perpetuated in so-called holy texts.

To run away from secularism towards a radical religious state is to run into the same intellectual cave as our enemies, to become more like them than stand apart from them.

More proof of the fantasy of God

A sad story to recount from last weekend. A pastor at a Baptist church in Waco, TX was electrocuted to death while performing a baptism.

Not withstanding the sorrow of the loss of this pastor's life, I wonder if anyone would bother to ask, why would God allow such a thing to happen? Why couldn't God protect this pastor from electrocution during a "holy" seromony?

To me, this is one extreme example of the fantasy of belief in God - no God exists, therefore, no being could stop the laws of nature from electrocuting someone who mixes water with electric current no matter how "holy" or secular the person.

Also, this should be a wake up call to those religous zealots who don't bother to learn enough science to realize that electric currents and water don't mix.