But it's on m' mind.[scratchn m head] 

Let me try to get this straight:

…So after the landgrab & the goldrush some wildcatters struck oil in Texas and some other gents built sketchy railways & cheated on treaty after treaty.  Then, years later, some geographers in England drew up a new boundary between Muslims & Hindus using outdated maps…& fence lines were laid-out along angry borders…& one people, who were dead set on what they had, were pushed backwards, squeezed-out, into a smaller space and told to shush & live witit.  Some folks want church in charge & some folks want state in charge & some folks just want to settle down with a significantly groovy other, raise an economically viable family, seek some level of spiritual awareness through prayer &/or meditation & eventually face inevitable death with a modicum of dignity.  So now American troops are committed indefinitely to being stuck in this quagmire like the l’il Dutch girl with her thumb stuck in the hole of the dike, keeping Iraq & Afghanistan from reinstating their darkest hours & taking themselves & a mostly goodly natured people to that gnarly next level of tyranny & man’s inhumanity to man. The Sunni debate the Shia for the top rung on the Muhammad love, shout-outs & heirs ladder.  The Israelis do whatever they want because they’re badasses.  The Saudis are cool too because they have a third of all the blessed black-hearted gold in the world under their holy places…& own a chunk of America & American interests, perhaps even a few American leaders &/or CEOs.  & then there’s Syria/Lebanon & Israel & the Golan Heights…oh my God!  Stabilization?!  How many different peoples & religions are crammed into this most historically holy & intrepid place where gents rule with a big stick & fear the power of the vagina?  There are far too many to list…& they certainly are NOT all one & the same & definitely they know their differences & the walks they walk & the talks they talk…& the oil reserves & weapons & ancient ire that is said to know no boundaries?  FUUUUCK!! 

We’re in Iraq because, apparently, Al Qaeda & Taliban are on the same dogmatic front enough so that we’re at war with both as one…in order to free their people from tyrants?  Bin Laden & Hussein are grouped together in one mindset?  One established there by our own leaders?  Yeah right.  Best I can remember, these cats have not been pals but mortal enemies, no?  But adequate targets for contempt?  & most of the 9/11 hijackers were, as I understand it according to the press, etc., Saudis…& yet Riyadh is a happenin’ R&R location free of the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air because somebody commissioned to locate water below the dessert, some time in the ‘30s, discovered a massive oil reserve instead?  &, although this may not mean much to some well-heeled cat in Texas, it’s now far too dangerous for certain folks (a people that it means a great big deal to) to risk the journey to Mecca to reach their highest ground as taught to them by their elders?  So many of these people, who perhaps were once all for the policing U.S. presence in their neighborhoods, are now having really nasty second thoughts while wandering in shock & awe amidst the rubble and the innocent dead.  &, as if that ain’t enough,  the coming Olympics are scheduled during Ramadan.           …….Then, just a meaningful click to the southwest finds, AIDS & starvation & unholy downright fckd-up greedy sorts continue to kill millions in Africa.  Diamonds there, right?  & those pesky dark skinned brothers & sisters & their silly smudge wielding holy men…& elephants (everybody knows how annoying elephants are) are not worth a plug nickel to the movers & shakers corralling them.   & everyone with a notion of God means to exact their one & only vision on everyone else despite of the fact that language and geographical area divides people into civilizations of cultural differences:  Differences of custom, language, & the definition of an honorable life, etc.  But we also share amazing similarities, similarities that can form into well-meant brush strokes of humanity & mutual understanding which draw one persons eyes so clearly into the warmth of another’s…& without the use of language or dogma or guns.  & then enter counterfeit dollars & drug/weapon cartels & North Korea & China and sweatshops & the sleeping bear & NAFTA & GAT & wheels & deals & nuclear proliferation!  …No doubt I’ve got this all fcked-up but I’m trying.  & I can’t go on: …my ears are bleeding.  Reg, Lee, GM, db, ab, SRB et alii, oh…the list goes on-and-on on this meaningful dbis, … help!    …Big@l:  Spin some music please!

Anybody who has ever known a doggedly conservative business minded friend has seen that look of imminent victory in their eyes…and, although they can be a lovable lot when the whiskey’s flowing or after coming-down off of one fit or another having hit the proverbial shan, know they have egos the size of the panhandle & just as hot under the collar.  So, love ‘em or not, they’re gona take & take…& take…& call it how’s they see it, and …it’s…just…bidness!  A game; …enigma/paradox/bummer.  I’m just not world-wise enough via public school & a sporadic college education & book & net reading to understand the point of destruction for sake of production.  Existence has been labeled a door wide open by the apt & erudite, but it so certainly appears to have been an eternity of doors wide closed. 

So what’s the point of our mighty powers that be?  As I lay my right hand over my heart and say the pledge.   …Remembering the feel of a peace-time rifle in my hands and wool & kaki & camouflage on my body & head, reading the jingoistic go!war vitriol spewed on this board by some of those who apparently never deemed it an honor & a duty to wear a military uniform after high school or college. …Looking over at my inspired sons & thinking forward only a few years to their young adulthoods & the ludicrous rising costs of higher education & the ludicrous rising human costs of military service. With all due respect, …I’m still cloudy on the whole WAR principle anymore.  I figure, whenever they show footage of the war they should have the little yellow Wal-Mart smiley dot bouncing around from dune to bunker to tank to ruin…showing points of savings & spreadsheet cost analysis & body bags & mass graves & scorecards & timelines…while we-the-paupers-to-an-aging-&-passé-dream…roll-out our dollars through the heady winds of change…up, up & away…unto our great pillars of economic morality & trust-fund preparedness in the hands of those would be kings & queens of self-actualization & mordant significance.

O-oh say can you see, …by the dawns’ early light, what so proudly….

I think we’re gona be alright.  Maybe these are the days of the dusk before the dawn.

For every three dckheads I read about, …there is one benevolent & courageous intellect & card carrying patriot of heart & pride gathering up the winds of a meaningful storm, …smells like ozone, …feels like spring.  No doubt there are those on both sides of the Atlantic who would fuel hate for eternity, this is our greatest sorrow [IMHO]; …turns an optimist cynical like lemon curdles cream & some of the more pragmatic messages of TRIAGE feel more real than every notion of hope...& potential…& humanity.

Are we to lay down and let all aspects of romanticism just die…right here in this fetid oil spill?  Are we to lie quietly down to rest and dream of better days while our children face Orwell’s nightmare…on a planet whose only real absolute necessity is that the sun keeps shining?  We are ALL descendants of a world that would gladly sustain us in food, water & waking for eternity…&, instead, we’d allow her to be fettered in chains, rode hard & put away wet?

Awe shucks, paw, …maw’s tired….