A Christmas gift was Obama's War by Bob Woodward.

It's a boring read, the driest of detached reporting. It's also confusing, full of acronyms, names of people so numerous one can't keep track of them.

But, oh, it's chilling. Woodward does not comment. he simiply reports. But the picture that emerges is of a nation fighting (and losing) a war in Afghanistan - with no definition of what victory his defined - or defeat.

Establish a functioning democracy? It's agreed that;s fifty years away, at best.

The US military which had been developing as a largely mercenary force of hired thugs, is now moving in a different direction. The new wars are being fought by small groups of assassins and terrorists known as special ops. Theres was one of the few budgets that was actually increased in the current US budget proposals.

Oil to China? Free trade with China? What's this all about?

Historically, Canada has always played second fiddle to its most important trade partner - first Britain, and now the US. Canadian business has always pressed for Canada to ape the foreign policy of the nation they depend on , and to fight its wars. And that is what we have done since at least the late nineteenth century.

Gee! Sometimes you just don't know what to think.  I mean, this Iran thing is so terrible that even Harper admits that Iran being so close to a nuclear bomb is the scariest thing in the world. And all the GOT candidates (except one) in the US want to attack Iran right now.

The Jan. 19 Christian Science Monitor ran a story quoting the Israeli paper Haaretz and the Israeli minister of defence and an Israeli intelligence report to the American general staff that Iran is NOT developing a nuclear bomb.

On another thread Graeme commented

Have you any disapproval of the destruction of Iraq and Libya to get their oil? Would you rank that as better or worse than camping on a public square?

I am not going to revive the original Iraq invasion arguments, that would be ridiculous.  

On the subject of Libya, NATO was keen to help, but almost all of Libya's oil goes to Europe, not the US.

As Republicans campaign to be the one to oppose Obama in the next election, all of the front-runners have publicly emphasized an important foreign policy view.  It is that God wants the United States to dominate the world and to rule over it for the next century. It is, they say, God's role and destiny for the United States. (It is already, obviously, the position of Obama, too.)

I wonder if any of our clergy could provide me with biblical references that support this claim.

Well? When did you last hear about Haiti in the news? How many houses have been built? How many people are still camping out? How is food and medical help coming along?  Why do we need so many troops there? Aristide kept peace in the country with no army at all. Why is Canada there?

It will be interesting to watch the Joe Lieberman bill as it works its way through congress. If it goes through in its starkest form, as I suspect it, will, then this means the final stage of American liberty has ended.

The bill woul strip the citizenship of any Americans suspected of terrorism. They would lose all rights to freedom, legal representation. They would be iimprisoned at a Guantanmo (there are quite a few of them), and tried, if at all, by a military tribunal. That means torture would be fair ball.

I read an item somewhere on the web, and just lost it. I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me where the story is.

It's about Canadian Jews for Peace in the Middle East. They had set up a tour for a Palestinian speaker who has been here before. The normal time for him to get a Canadian visa was 24 hours. But they applied far in advance this time. And this time the Canadian government, knowing his schedule, postponed the visa until it was too late. CJPME had, of course, to cancel the tour.

With Israel's deliberate and public ihumiliation of  Ofama and Biden, by announcing they were stepping up the building of illegal settlements and thus destroying any peace talks, We have surely come to the end of a road.

Even an ass-kisser like Harper has said he regrets the Israeli move.