Comments on: From TomDispatch: The Nine Surges of Obama’s War http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2009/12/from-tomdispatch-the-nine-surges-of-obama%e2%80%99s-war/ Rethinking our policy toward Afghanistan requires vigorous public debate and Congressional oversight. Every major war or military action since World War II has come under the microscope of Congressional oversight hearings Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:05:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: davidbaer http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2009/12/from-tomdispatch-the-nine-surges-of-obama%e2%80%99s-war/comment-page-1/#comment-1683 davidbaer Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:47:05 +0000 http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=1094#comment-1683 There's a movement to radically change California government, by getting rid of career politicians and chopping their salaries in half. A group known as Citizens for California Reform wants to make the California legislature a part time time job, just like it was until 1966.<br><br><a href="http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com" rel="nofollow">www.onlineuniversalwork.com</a> There's a movement to radically change California government, by getting rid of career politicians and chopping their salaries in half. A group known as Citizens for California Reform wants to make the California legislature a part time time job, just like it was until 1966.

http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com

]]> By: timtrewyn http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2009/12/from-tomdispatch-the-nine-surges-of-obama%e2%80%99s-war/comment-page-1/#comment-1405 timtrewyn Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:34:24 +0000 http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=1094#comment-1405 Please stay on the topic here. Please stay on the topic here.

]]> By: Coetsee http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2009/12/from-tomdispatch-the-nine-surges-of-obama%e2%80%99s-war/comment-page-1/#comment-1404 Coetsee Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:10:40 +0000 http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=1094#comment-1404 "I have just hit my fifties and I have established a very comfortable financial position. I am a financial consultant for a highly successful international brokerage house, but it has not always been that way.<br>I have experienced hard times, particularly when I was younger, and it was then that I developed the bedrock of my financial resources, The Winning Way which is on offer on this web site. Once that system took off the old adage of money makes money has never been more true. The instant cash flow gave me the opportunity to try out a trading system, 100% Profit In One Year which is also on offer here and this accelerated cash into my account like there was no tomorrow.<br><br><a href="http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com%22" rel="nofollow">www.onlineuniversalwork.com"</a> “I have just hit my fifties and I have established a very comfortable financial position. I am a financial consultant for a highly successful international brokerage house, but it has not always been that way.
I have experienced hard times, particularly when I was younger, and it was then that I developed the bedrock of my financial resources, The Winning Way which is on offer on this web site. Once that system took off the old adage of money makes money has never been more true. The instant cash flow gave me the opportunity to try out a trading system, 100% Profit In One Year which is also on offer here and this accelerated cash into my account like there was no tomorrow.

http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com“

]]> By: Pulladigm http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2009/12/from-tomdispatch-the-nine-surges-of-obama%e2%80%99s-war/comment-page-1/#comment-1291 Pulladigm Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:15:01 +0000 http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=1094#comment-1291 My Grandmother always said you can attract more flies w/ honey than with vinegar. We need to take a positive approach. If we criticize we need to offer a better solution. Otherwise we are no better than the right wingnuts that got us here. Here is an approach that offers real alternative solutions to the death and destruction of war. It will cost less than 3 months worth of war. It will save thousands of American, Afghan and Pakistani lives.<br> I hope you and those with whom you are working will be for this approach as a way to stop and abate war. Rather than just being against something.<br> To begin with we must realize that AFGHANISTAN IS NOT A COUNTRY! Afghanistan is not a nation. Afghanistan is a string of valleys strung together by a harsh, rugged, sometimes impassable mountain range. Afghanistan is scattered villages of tribal and familial groups loosely connected by trade, a common language and a common religious tradition. Even in the cities the people congregate into neighborhoods of common tribal, familial and/or religious groups.<br> If you are not of their village or neighborhood, if you do not speak their language you are a foreigner, an outsider, a stranger. If you are a stranger with a gun you are an enemy. As long as there are foreigners with guns on Afghan soil there will be Afghans to fight them. Many have learned that hard lesson the Persians, the Greeks, the Moghuls, the Mongols, the Chinese, the British, the Soviets and now the Americans, us.<br> Military action is a failure of diplomacy. The Afghans will never be defeated by force. The Afghans will never be subdued by force. They must be charmed, cajoled, enticed, courted family by family, tribe by tribe, village by village, marketplace by marketplace, neighborhood by neighborhood. Nation building must start with trust and respect on the most local levels. It will only happen by diplomacy.<br> Perhaps it is not being reported. I am hearing nothing about anyone getting out of their cushy embassy offices and going out to the valleys, villages, marketplaces and neighborhoods. Breaking bread, sitting down over a cup of coffee or tea, to ask the Afghan people what they want for their country. Instead of telling them what we think they should have.<br> They need roads. Are we building roads? Are they building roads? How many Afghans are employed building those road? <br> Road building in the ruggeg Afghan mountains will be a slow, tedious, expensive proposition. Most Afghans walk, ride donkeys and camels. What is being done to improve the tracks, paths and trails between villages that Afghans have used for millenia until roads are built in those rugged, forbidding mountains.<br> They need and want electricity. Why are we not contracting with American companies to provide windmills, solar panels and small generating plants that run on biofuels and animal power to supply that need, particularly in their remote mountainous regions and villages. Train Afghans to install, service, repair and run them. <br> Afghanistan is the perfect laboratory for developing local green alternative energy. Not just for use in Afghanistan, but also for use in the United States and for export to many third world and remote locales. A way to provide power in a remote mountain village in Afghanistan will certainly work in the African bush, the remotest Australian outback, an Inuit village on the edge of the tundra in Alaska, a Siberian village, Etc. <br> It will give a major boost to our alternative green energy industry. Give the Afghans the power they need. Provide jobs for Afghanistan and the United States. Bring Afghans peace and prosperity. <br> It will provide alternatives to the poppy production. They can grow cash crops for their biofuel industry, as well as food, in the poppy fields. We can also provide alternative fuel buses and cars so they won't be dependent on foreign fossil fuel products as are we.<br> They need and want education. Let Afghan labor build Schools with materials and support we supply them. Find and train Afghans to teach in them. Train local Afghans to protect their schools and their children. <br> Find moderate and liberal clerics to serve as alternatives for the fundamentalists, violent, angry male bovine excrement that dominates in many parts of Afghanistan. As well as to teach in the madras' a more moderate, peaceful Islam.<br> The best kind of business deal is where both sides walk away from the table feeling as though they have gained something. This proposal is a win-win situation. The only losers will be the officials of a corrupt government that will be bypassed and lose their cut. As well as those angry people committed to a course of violence and war profiteers.<br> If this kind of effort is going on I am not hearing any of it in the mainstream media, the alternative press or the internet. Is it because it is not being reported? OR is it because it is not happening.<br> The approach I propose requires humility rather than arrogance. This so-called 'christian' country has never been very big on humility. However, this is a positive approach that has a real chance of success. It is considerably cheaper in lives and treasure than our present course<br>~;^}> My Grandmother always said you can attract more flies w/ honey than with vinegar. We need to take a positive approach. If we criticize we need to offer a better solution. Otherwise we are no better than the right wingnuts that got us here. Here is an approach that offers real alternative solutions to the death and destruction of war. It will cost less than 3 months worth of war. It will save thousands of American, Afghan and Pakistani lives.
I hope you and those with whom you are working will be for this approach as a way to stop and abate war. Rather than just being against something.
To begin with we must realize that AFGHANISTAN IS NOT A COUNTRY! Afghanistan is not a nation. Afghanistan is a string of valleys strung together by a harsh, rugged, sometimes impassable mountain range. Afghanistan is scattered villages of tribal and familial groups loosely connected by trade, a common language and a common religious tradition. Even in the cities the people congregate into neighborhoods of common tribal, familial and/or religious groups.
If you are not of their village or neighborhood, if you do not speak their language you are a foreigner, an outsider, a stranger. If you are a stranger with a gun you are an enemy. As long as there are foreigners with guns on Afghan soil there will be Afghans to fight them. Many have learned that hard lesson the Persians, the Greeks, the Moghuls, the Mongols, the Chinese, the British, the Soviets and now the Americans, us.
Military action is a failure of diplomacy. The Afghans will never be defeated by force. The Afghans will never be subdued by force. They must be charmed, cajoled, enticed, courted family by family, tribe by tribe, village by village, marketplace by marketplace, neighborhood by neighborhood. Nation building must start with trust and respect on the most local levels. It will only happen by diplomacy.
Perhaps it is not being reported. I am hearing nothing about anyone getting out of their cushy embassy offices and going out to the valleys, villages, marketplaces and neighborhoods. Breaking bread, sitting down over a cup of coffee or tea, to ask the Afghan people what they want for their country. Instead of telling them what we think they should have.
They need roads. Are we building roads? Are they building roads? How many Afghans are employed building those road?
Road building in the ruggeg Afghan mountains will be a slow, tedious, expensive proposition. Most Afghans walk, ride donkeys and camels. What is being done to improve the tracks, paths and trails between villages that Afghans have used for millenia until roads are built in those rugged, forbidding mountains.
They need and want electricity. Why are we not contracting with American companies to provide windmills, solar panels and small generating plants that run on biofuels and animal power to supply that need, particularly in their remote mountainous regions and villages. Train Afghans to install, service, repair and run them.
Afghanistan is the perfect laboratory for developing local green alternative energy. Not just for use in Afghanistan, but also for use in the United States and for export to many third world and remote locales. A way to provide power in a remote mountain village in Afghanistan will certainly work in the African bush, the remotest Australian outback, an Inuit village on the edge of the tundra in Alaska, a Siberian village, Etc.
It will give a major boost to our alternative green energy industry. Give the Afghans the power they need. Provide jobs for Afghanistan and the United States. Bring Afghans peace and prosperity.
It will provide alternatives to the poppy production. They can grow cash crops for their biofuel industry, as well as food, in the poppy fields. We can also provide alternative fuel buses and cars so they won't be dependent on foreign fossil fuel products as are we.
They need and want education. Let Afghan labor build Schools with materials and support we supply them. Find and train Afghans to teach in them. Train local Afghans to protect their schools and their children.
Find moderate and liberal clerics to serve as alternatives for the fundamentalists, violent, angry male bovine excrement that dominates in many parts of Afghanistan. As well as to teach in the madras' a more moderate, peaceful Islam.
The best kind of business deal is where both sides walk away from the table feeling as though they have gained something. This proposal is a win-win situation. The only losers will be the officials of a corrupt government that will be bypassed and lose their cut. As well as those angry people committed to a course of violence and war profiteers.
If this kind of effort is going on I am not hearing any of it in the mainstream media, the alternative press or the internet. Is it because it is not being reported? OR is it because it is not happening.
The approach I propose requires humility rather than arrogance. This so-called 'christian' country has never been very big on humility. However, this is a positive approach that has a real chance of success. It is considerably cheaper in lives and treasure than our present course
~;^}>

]]> By: Pulladigm http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2009/12/from-tomdispatch-the-nine-surges-of-obama%e2%80%99s-war/comment-page-1/#comment-1259 Pulladigm Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:15:01 +0000 http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=1094#comment-1259 My Grandmother always said you can attract more flies w/ honey than with vinegar. We need to take a positive approach. If we criticize we need to offer a better solution. Otherwise we are no better than the right wingnuts that got us here. Here is an approach that offers real alternative solutions to the death and destruction of war. It will cost less than 3 months worth of war. It will save thousands of American, Afghan and Pakistani lives.<br> I hope you and those with whom you are working will be for this approach as a way to stop and abate war. Rather than just being against something.<br> To begin with we must realize that AFGHANISTAN IS NOT A COUNTRY! Afghanistan is not a nation. Afghanistan is a string of valleys strung together by a harsh, rugged, sometimes impassable mountain range. Afghanistan is scattered villages of tribal and familial groups loosely connected by trade, a common language and a common religious tradition. Even in the cities the people congregate into neighborhoods of common tribal, familial and/or religious groups.<br> If you are not of their village or neighborhood, if you do not speak their language you are a foreigner, an outsider, a stranger. If you are a stranger with a gun you are an enemy. As long as there are foreigners with guns on Afghan soil there will be Afghans to fight them. Many have learned that hard lesson the Persians, the Greeks, the Moghuls, the Mongols, the Chinese, the British, the Soviets and now the Americans, us.<br> Military action is a failure of diplomacy. The Afghans will never be defeated by force. The Afghans will never be subdued by force. They must be charmed, cajoled, enticed, courted family by family, tribe by tribe, village by village, marketplace by marketplace, neighborhood by neighborhood. Nation building must start with trust and respect on the most local levels. It will only happen by diplomacy.<br> Perhaps it is not being reported. I am hearing nothing about anyone getting out of their cushy embassy offices and going out to the valleys, villages, marketplaces and neighborhoods. Breaking bread, sitting down over a cup of coffee or tea, to ask the Afghan people what they want for their country. Instead of telling them what we think they should have.<br> They need roads. Are we building roads? Are they building roads? How many Afghans are employed building those road? <br> Road building in the ruggeg Afghan mountains will be a slow, tedious, expensive proposition. Most Afghans walk, ride donkeys and camels. What is being done to improve the tracks, paths and trails between villages that Afghans have used for millenia until roads are built in those rugged, forbidding mountains.<br> They need and want electricity. Why are we not contracting with American companies to provide windmills, solar panels and small generating plants that run on biofuels and animal power to supply that need, particularly in their remote mountainous regions and villages. Train Afghans to install, service, repair and run them. <br> Afghanistan is the perfect laboratory for developing local green alternative energy. Not just for use in Afghanistan, but also for use in the United States and for export to many third world and remote locales. A way to provide power in a remote mountain village in Afghanistan will certainly work in the African bush, the remotest Australian outback, an Inuit village on the edge of the tundra in Alaska, a Siberian village, Etc. <br> It will give a major boost to our alternative green energy industry. Give the Afghans the power they need. Provide jobs for Afghanistan and the United States. Bring Afghans peace and prosperity. <br> It will provide alternatives to the poppy production. They can grow cash crops for their biofuel industry, as well as food, in the poppy fields. We can also provide alternative fuel buses and cars so they won't be dependent on foreign fossil fuel products as are we.<br> They need and want education. Let Afghan labor build Schools with materials and support we supply them. Find and train Afghans to teach in them. Train local Afghans to protect their schools and their children. <br> Find moderate and liberal clerics to serve as alternatives for the fundamentalists, violent, angry male bovine excrement that dominates in many parts of Afghanistan. As well as to teach in the madras' a more moderate, peaceful Islam.<br> The best kind of business deal is where both sides walk away from the table feeling as though they have gained something. This proposal is a win-win situation. The only losers will be the officials of a corrupt government that will be bypassed and lose their cut. As well as those angry people committed to a course of violence and war profiteers.<br> If this kind of effort is going on I am not hearing any of it in the mainstream media, the alternative press or the internet. Is it because it is not being reported? OR is it because it is not happening.<br> The approach I propose requires humility rather than arrogance. This so-called 'christian' country has never been very big on humility. However, this is a positive approach that has a real chance of success. It is considerably cheaper in lives and treasure than our present course<br>~;^}> My Grandmother always said you can attract more flies w/ honey than with vinegar. We need to take a positive approach. If we criticize we need to offer a better solution. Otherwise we are no better than the right wingnuts that got us here. Here is an approach that offers real alternative solutions to the death and destruction of war. It will cost less than 3 months worth of war. It will save thousands of American, Afghan and Pakistani lives.
I hope you and those with whom you are working will be for this approach as a way to stop and abate war. Rather than just being against something.
To begin with we must realize that AFGHANISTAN IS NOT A COUNTRY! Afghanistan is not a nation. Afghanistan is a string of valleys strung together by a harsh, rugged, sometimes impassable mountain range. Afghanistan is scattered villages of tribal and familial groups loosely connected by trade, a common language and a common religious tradition. Even in the cities the people congregate into neighborhoods of common tribal, familial and/or religious groups.
If you are not of their village or neighborhood, if you do not speak their language you are a foreigner, an outsider, a stranger. If you are a stranger with a gun you are an enemy. As long as there are foreigners with guns on Afghan soil there will be Afghans to fight them. Many have learned that hard lesson the Persians, the Greeks, the Moghuls, the Mongols, the Chinese, the British, the Soviets and now the Americans, us.
Military action is a failure of diplomacy. The Afghans will never be defeated by force. The Afghans will never be subdued by force. They must be charmed, cajoled, enticed, courted family by family, tribe by tribe, village by village, marketplace by marketplace, neighborhood by neighborhood. Nation building must start with trust and respect on the most local levels. It will only happen by diplomacy.
Perhaps it is not being reported. I am hearing nothing about anyone getting out of their cushy embassy offices and going out to the valleys, villages, marketplaces and neighborhoods. Breaking bread, sitting down over a cup of coffee or tea, to ask the Afghan people what they want for their country. Instead of telling them what we think they should have.
They need roads. Are we building roads? Are they building roads? How many Afghans are employed building those road?
Road building in the ruggeg Afghan mountains will be a slow, tedious, expensive proposition. Most Afghans walk, ride donkeys and camels. What is being done to improve the tracks, paths and trails between villages that Afghans have used for millenia until roads are built in those rugged, forbidding mountains.
They need and want electricity. Why are we not contracting with American companies to provide windmills, solar panels and small generating plants that run on biofuels and animal power to supply that need, particularly in their remote mountainous regions and villages. Train Afghans to install, service, repair and run them.
Afghanistan is the perfect laboratory for developing local green alternative energy. Not just for use in Afghanistan, but also for use in the United States and for export to many third world and remote locales. A way to provide power in a remote mountain village in Afghanistan will certainly work in the African bush, the remotest Australian outback, an Inuit village on the edge of the tundra in Alaska, a Siberian village, Etc.
It will give a major boost to our alternative green energy industry. Give the Afghans the power they need. Provide jobs for Afghanistan and the United States. Bring Afghans peace and prosperity.
It will provide alternatives to the poppy production. They can grow cash crops for their biofuel industry, as well as food, in the poppy fields. We can also provide alternative fuel buses and cars so they won't be dependent on foreign fossil fuel products as are we.
They need and want education. Let Afghan labor build Schools with materials and support we supply them. Find and train Afghans to teach in them. Train local Afghans to protect their schools and their children.
Find moderate and liberal clerics to serve as alternatives for the fundamentalists, violent, angry male bovine excrement that dominates in many parts of Afghanistan. As well as to teach in the madras' a more moderate, peaceful Islam.
The best kind of business deal is where both sides walk away from the table feeling as though they have gained something. This proposal is a win-win situation. The only losers will be the officials of a corrupt government that will be bypassed and lose their cut. As well as those angry people committed to a course of violence and war profiteers.
If this kind of effort is going on I am not hearing any of it in the mainstream media, the alternative press or the internet. Is it because it is not being reported? OR is it because it is not happening.
The approach I propose requires humility rather than arrogance. This so-called 'christian' country has never been very big on humility. However, this is a positive approach that has a real chance of success. It is considerably cheaper in lives and treasure than our present course
~;^}>

]]> By: ENDIF http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2009/12/from-tomdispatch-the-nine-surges-of-obama%e2%80%99s-war/comment-page-1/#comment-1258 ENDIF Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:46:59 +0000 http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=1094#comment-1258 "In reality, the U.S. military, along with its civilian and intelligence counterparts, has been in an almost constant state of surge since the last days of the Bush administration. "<br><br><br>Yes, that's what happens when you fulfill a campaign promise to do precisely this. <br><br>When you stop ignoring a war you're already in the middle of and try to actually achieve the goals toward which billions in treasure and thousands of lives have already been spent instead of washing your hands of it like a petulant child and walking away, **only to have it come back exponentially worse later**. <br><br>Only fools love war, but just as foolish are those who would avoid what must be done out of a misplaced loyalty to the notion that one must never engage in it. “In reality, the U.S. military, along with its civilian and intelligence counterparts, has been in an almost constant state of surge since the last days of the Bush administration. “

Yes, that's what happens when you fulfill a campaign promise to do precisely this.

When you stop ignoring a war you're already in the middle of and try to actually achieve the goals toward which billions in treasure and thousands of lives have already been spent instead of washing your hands of it like a petulant child and walking away, **only to have it come back exponentially worse later**.

Only fools love war, but just as foolish are those who would avoid what must be done out of a misplaced loyalty to the notion that one must never engage in it.

]]> By: kiramatalishah http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2009/12/from-tomdispatch-the-nine-surges-of-obama%e2%80%99s-war/comment-page-1/#comment-1257 kiramatalishah Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:42:55 +0000 http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=1094#comment-1257 Many companies all over the world need your opinions on their products. They will send you a simple online survey forms, where you need to fill it out and they pay you money.<br><br>The most remarkable thing about this paid survey program is that anyone can make money with it. <br>It doesn't require any special skills, training, education or previous business experience. You only need access to the Internet and basic typing skills. <br>It is the perfect home business for stay at home moms, students, home makers, retirees or anyone that is in need of some extra cash.<br><br><br><a href="http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com" rel="nofollow">www.onlineuniversalwork.com</a> Many companies all over the world need your opinions on their products. They will send you a simple online survey forms, where you need to fill it out and they pay you money.

The most remarkable thing about this paid survey program is that anyone can make money with it.
It doesn't require any special skills, training, education or previous business experience. You only need access to the Internet and basic typing skills.
It is the perfect home business for stay at home moms, students, home makers, retirees or anyone that is in need of some extra cash.

http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com

]]> By: Tim Trewyn http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/2009/12/from-tomdispatch-the-nine-surges-of-obama%e2%80%99s-war/comment-page-1/#comment-1252 Tim Trewyn Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:14:47 +0000 http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=1094#comment-1252 One really begins to wonder if the American people (excepting our elite) have any influence at all over the general strategy of American foreign policy. The proper priority would appear to be the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, (which they have been able to keep out of India's hands for many years) but the strategy in fact appears to be to find as many ways as possible to spend large amounts of money on projects on the other side of the planet. The hidden agendas remain hidden, and we can only speculate: create a regional client state, flanking Iran (the next target?), containing Russia and China and India, controlling the opium trade, controlling mined resources in the region, and containing militant Islam. The average American is left to watch all this, his opinion unconsidered, even disdained, but his children and further descendents burdened with the debt. I thought we built a strong country so we could grow in chapters of peace, prevail in occasional wars, and work with the global community to build a better life for all. Instead we have the psychohistorians of the Pentagon perpetually directing armed interventions to nullify projected future threats and assuage the fears of those whose hope is solely in what they can hold on to in this life. Patient service by people of faith in the region (and private assistance to them from us) would probably do far more to bring peace than our young soldiers can. During the Bush administration, I felt I had lost my country. Obama was a breath of fresh air (I did not vote for him). Now I'm back to feeling like I've lost my country to those in the bondage of unrelievable fear. O say does that star-spangled . . . ? One really begins to wonder if the American people (excepting our elite) have any influence at all over the general strategy of American foreign policy. The proper priority would appear to be the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, (which they have been able to keep out of India's hands for many years) but the strategy in fact appears to be to find as many ways as possible to spend large amounts of money on projects on the other side of the planet. The hidden agendas remain hidden, and we can only speculate: create a regional client state, flanking Iran (the next target?), containing Russia and China and India, controlling the opium trade, controlling mined resources in the region, and containing militant Islam. The average American is left to watch all this, his opinion unconsidered, even disdained, but his children and further descendents burdened with the debt. I thought we built a strong country so we could grow in chapters of peace, prevail in occasional wars, and work with the global community to build a better life for all. Instead we have the psychohistorians of the Pentagon perpetually directing armed interventions to nullify projected future threats and assuage the fears of those whose hope is solely in what they can hold on to in this life. Patient service by people of faith in the region (and private assistance to them from us) would probably do far more to bring peace than our young soldiers can. During the Bush administration, I felt I had lost my country. Obama was a breath of fresh air (I did not vote for him). Now I'm back to feeling like I've lost my country to those in the bondage of unrelievable fear. O say does that star-spangled . . . ?

]]>