The wires are reporting that Paul Johnson has been beheaded by al Qaeda.
A lot of people like me — liberal (at least, that’s the label the right has stuck on us, and I ask you — what wrong with liberal, in the country renowned for liberty? But I digress) and peaceful — are stuck in the middle of a world situation made so much worse these days by our president.
I’m not making sense here. Hold on. Let me think about how to say this.
I am horrified by everyone these days.
Al Qaeda are a bunch of barbaric, insane maniacs — I can’t even begin to describe what I think of Osama bin Laden and his followers. I may be a devotee of peace, but there are often times when I think that a good old fashioned nuclear device pitched his way is the best solution to his ilk.
George Bush and his cronies are also insane — different, of course, in significant degrees and reigned in by the system, although as has been shown lately, they tend to work outside the system as well. This administration has, for various reasons known only to themselves, pushed our nation into a war that has alienated us from the rest of the world and caused more strife and anger in the Arab world. Far from making it safe for democracy, he’s taken a huge stick and smacked that hornet’s nest hard.
They say that they must take the fight to the middle east before it comes to America. Well, guys, it’s in America. Just ask the families of Nick Berg and Paul Johnson. And the hundreds and hundreds of servicemen and women who have perished in this monumental f**k-up you’ve started.
I don’t know what to do about al Qaeda, but I’m sure that the Bush administration is not doing it. I can do something about the Bush administration. At least, I think I can. Do you think that voting in the upcoming election will do anything? Or have we slid so far into the depths that there will not be a peaceful transfer of power if Bush is defeated in November?
