Unhappyness

Jay Leno wrote something about how satisfied Americans are with the country. And he's right on a lot of things. We have so much food we are going obese with it, and a steadily rising industry ready to deal with that problem, too. We are a country of excess, and it's terrifyingly wonderful to live here. I suppose that some portion of the 67 unhappy percent are upset because we don't give enough to the rest of the world, but I doubt it.

I'm not angry at Bush for forcing our troops to fight in Iraq. As Leno said, any troops over there chose to enlist and serve the president. I suppose I should rephrase that. I'm not angry at Bush for forcing our troops to fight; I'm angry because he pointed them to Iraq. Something needed to be done after 9/11, that much is true, and Bush did a great job of focusing our power, anguish and rage, and directing it towards one place. Afghanistan was a good start. Other places, though, were not such wise choices, such as the USA PATRIOT ACT, secret prisons for anonymous "enemy combatants," and in general a disdain by the Executive branch for the rule of law in this country. Whenever anything comes up, 9/11 changed everything, we must fight terrorism, etc etc...

I'm glad I live in America, and the general scope of the country, when taken over the last century (let's face it, no matter how bad a job Bush did, he can't remove supermarkets in 8 years) has been good. But Iraq is, as many have described it, a quagmire. Actually, I think it seems much more like a tar baby - we attacked it due to a perceived threat, and the more we fight it, the harder it is to escape. Bush says that, given a chance to do it all over again, he would do it the same way. This is why I am dissatisfied with Bush's presidency. He has demonstrated on seemingly every possible occasion that he is unable to adapt or learn. Something tells me that he learned how to President (v) from his father, who rode the country through generally peaceful times, and invaded Iraq in a 30 day "war". Bush isn't trying to avenge his father. He is trying to mimic him, and he's doing a pretty poor job of it.

We should have stayed in Afghanistan, and that's all I'm going to say about the subject for tonight.