Few thoughts on things

I wrote about my hero, General Patton yesterday, I have been giving Iraq more thought, and have not arrived at any groundbreaking discoveries. President Bush is clear that he is frustrated over the present course of action and we all can understand and emphasize with that feeling.

We have the most powerful, awesome military machine in the world. We have bombs that can just about knock on the door to see if the target is home and yet from a political standpoint we are not accomplishing anything.

Election time brings out the worst in the advertising, the Rush Limbaugh insults to Michael J. Fox on his disease stands out as a prime example of this statement. I like Rush, don’t always agree with him, as well as not always agree on the party line, but he fell from grace when insulting an actor that is so loved and stricken with a debilitating disease as Fox is. When I watched the advertisement in question I was not only saddened by Rush’s comments, but felt badly that Michael J. Fox had to sit before a camera to make those statements in his present condition because he wants a cure, nothing more.

I am not going to even get into a hollering match on stem cell research, I am sure we all have our own feelings on this just as I have mine. But let’s be honest here folks, no matter what research plays into something as devastating as Parkinson’s it should never have to cross into the arena of the political football nightmares of election time. I have a friend stricken with a neurological disease and she has become one of my personal heroes, her bravery and steadfast determination to beat her problems is an inspiration to me, she does not know that, I have never told her, but to me, she is my hero.

Bear with me a moment for one of the Ranter’s famous analogies. I had a friend who was trying to save the whales, monkeys, baby seals and just about every tree he could chain himself to the trunk. I did not support him in his endeavors; on the contrary, I ticked him off to no end. I explained to him that if all the diseases of humanity could be cured just by destroying one of the things he was fighting for, then I saw nothing wrong with that. I never spoke to him again, but did read years ago that he had been arrested for breaking into a lab to free monkey’s that turned out to be infected with a deadly disease. He could have wiped out humanity to save a sick monkey the lab people had not even infected, but were trying to cure to turn back into the wild.

When it comes to the diseases that strike at the heart and core of our bodies the research should be tireless, endless and enter any field necessary until a cure is found, pure and simple. It should never enter the political nightmare of elections or anything even remotely connected to them.

As far as our goals and plans for Iraq, who even is aware of this any longer? They have changed so many times that no one; including the President has no idea. Pulling our troops out and bringing them home is not the answer as some of the Democratic advertisements have suggested. We would leave Iraq in a war nightmare that we created with a war between the two sects that will lead to the eventual destruction of one, if not the country.

The Democrats always have the answer, pull the troops out and that makes as much sense as running away from a problem, but that is what they do, it is the easy way and the one Hollywood prefers, so that is their answer.

Our brave men and women are standing on the line and defending their lives, we are sitting here in the safety of our homes debating the issue. This is so stupid, insane and absurd, yet it is what America has always done, business as usual and the troops suffer. Damn this sickens me to no end.