Did you hear?  The war is over in Iraq.  This feels a lot different to me than the end of Viet Nam, Desert Storm or even Grenada, except for the part where I’m ashamed of my country’s participation.  As usual, on the positive vs negative checklist, the categories of useless death and destruction were by far the longest columns.  Sure, we got rid of some bad guys, but whatever ends were accomplished, if any, will never justify the means.  And we’ve left thousands of people there, (doing that thing we do), in harm’s way.  We continue on in Afghanistan and, sadly, like the fuzzy portrait of “Victory in Iraq”, no one responsible for waging that atrocity could begin to sketch, finger paint or verbally share with the class what “Victory” there would even look like.

Meanwhile, a skirmish in our most important war took place on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial yesterday.  Abe and the Reverend Martin Luther King had to be spinning in their respective graves as the forces of dumb, led by Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin incited their remedial minions.  The two ignorant, uninformed jingoists, who will say anything to further their celebrity, strutted, bible-thumped, mispronounced or made up words that, no matter how they deny their intent, are aimed at racial division and the demise of most of the cherished principles for which our country has struggled.  They are enemies of the United States who are blatantly playing on the emotions of dissatisfied, unemployed, over-taxed and horribly uninformed people in search of a thirst-quenching drink of Cool-Aid©.  Maybe it’s just me, (again), but Freedom of Speech, as guaranteed in the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution, does not protect anyone from rallying a militia, (armed with weapons or misspelled posters), for the purpose of overthrowing the government.  Send in the drones!