Wow!

Submitted by Dan Robinson on December 31, 2006 - 7:08pm

Personally I'm looking forward to a healthy and happy 2007. My personal life is great and I can honestly say that I'm very happy. The same for my worklife. My work life at CivicActions is everything I want and need right now and I can honestly say that this has been the most exciting, rewarding and creative work experience I have ever been a part of. Now for the not so good stuff.

Today we crossed a threshold of 3000 dead service people in Iraq. This is even more pointed for me as I read Fiasco and see that deaths in Iraq have reached 3,000 and that SH was executed. The Fiasco book lays it all out. Everything we (those of us who thought this thing was wrong from the inception) thought about what was and is happening were right. The entire conception and execution of this conflict was and is rotten to the core. I personally believe we've already lost and all the noise we're hearing from the smart folks at the White House is the gurgling last gasps of people drowning in their own hubris. Particularly striking are the accounts I'm reading accounts of Saddam's execution - the one's with the gleeful militia folks taunting him with cries of "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada" and thinking - these are the guys we're supporting?

One thing that caught my eye about a week ago was the mention in an article in the New York Times about possible complicity between Iraq and Turkey in poison gas attacks on the Kurds. From the article:

The trial of Saddam Hussein on charges of the killing of tens of thousands of Kurds during the 1980s was adjourned until Jan. 8. Prosecutors told the court that Iraqi soldiers had been ordered to cooperate with Turkish forces in the killings, but the precise nature of an implied agreement between the countries was not spelled out.

When a document supposedly describing the agreement was read into the record, the judge ordered the microphone cut off so that reporters could not hear it. Beyond interjecting a few brief comments, Mr. Hussein mostly sat silently.

After this it was announced that the trial would be resumed in January - I guess it was decided that that wouldn't be a great idea.

And where are the Democrats - we'll see... Why do I think it would be a good idea not to expect too much from our friends with the the "majority" label on their lapels?

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, but if I did I think it would revolve around my working to take some of the dangerous toys these folks are playing with away.

Happy New Year - I'm looking forward to a happy, healthy and productive 2007. See you then!