Heads Rolling

I nicked my neck the other day while shaving. A little shaving cream seeped into the tiny nick and I was surprised by the amount of pain. Imagine the surprise of Nick Berg, hands and feet bound but not blindfolded, when Islamic radicals, following a rambling dissertation, all captured intentionally on video, grabbed him, threw him to the floor and proceeded to cut his head off. Yes, he was fully conscious. Yes, he was fully aware of what was happening to him. Relative to alternative means of killing another human being it was quick. Nick only screamed and struggled in horror and agony for about thirty seconds. That first cut through that sensitive skin on his throat and the subsequent sawing through his esophagus, brachial plexus nerves causing brief but unimaginable pain, through the muscles and tendons in his neck, all the vessels feeding his brain and finally, his last realization that this was, in-fact the end of his life on Earth. All the brief but adrenaline enhanced emotions, thoughts, feelings, excrutiating pain and fear he must have felt haunts me. The life leaves his body and only God knows the extent his brain continues to function beyond until those final moments. This is the fate Islam and Islamic fascists condemned all non-Muslims to upon the first acceptance of it as a religion.

To understand the depravity of people who are capable of and willing to commit such an act against another living, breathing human is to explore the depths of faith, devotion and the reason for our existence. Until such time as we are able to talk to God, we must guess what is behavior that a rational being who would rule all the universe and who, according to innumerable religions, controls our eternity.

Absent such answers from God, we have to decide how we will live together on this planet. After-all, this is the only existence we know, for certain, that involves us and our individual choices. Man, we could get really deep with this and I could get all graphic again, describing the hundreds of people who are routinely dispatched in this manner in the Muslim world. On the other hand, I wish only to point out the battle to which I can only hope we are committed against the people who commit these acts.

We have had a dramatic shift in the political lanscape and if you listen to the pundits, it is all because of the Iraq war. If you listen to the talk show hosts, they will debate the proper designation of the conflict. I consider it a rebuilding effort, and the US role being that of restoring order and security as well as training the Iraqis to defend themselves following what can only be described as a swift and brilliant defeat of the Iraqi Army. That done, we get out. Some are comparing this "war" to WWII if only that it has "lasted longer". Don't we still have troops in Germany? We still have troops in Iraq. WWII was a geo-political war. The war against terror is primarily a propaganda war. The terrorists are winning because that is their strategy. A several thousand year old strategy of breaking your opponent by creating terror and demoralization is working against the most technologically advanced civilization in the history of the Earth, because we lack resolve and patience. Our military is committed and our troops, as evidenced by record re-enlistments in-theater are occuring. Yet our political leaders are divided, the newly elected majority of Democrats appears like a ship without a rudder and all the political divisions have, among the senior Democrats, magically disappeared...on Iraq.

The shifting landscape over the next weeks and months holds something I don't believe anyone has considered. Within the now Democrat dominated Congress, there will be a number of newbies, coming in with a perceived mandate to "get our troops out now". This idealism will collide with the reality of a lack of direction from the Democratic Party for the future, the power of the Comander in Chief and a generally idealistic approach to the conflict vs. the reality of our commitment. The junior members of Congress coming from the Democratic Party, expecting to see their adrenaline enhanced euphoria and fervor to get out, will be disappointed.

Nancy Pelosi has made it clear that dissention in the ranks will not be tolerated and there will be repurcussions for those who engage in it. The stage is set for civil, or not so civil war within the Democratic Party. 2008 will usher in the ultra-important election, as has every other. Yet this one will be different. The Democrats, never able to keep the rabble on a consistent, logical strategy, will be in disarray in short order. By 2008, Americans will be begging for the divisiveness between the two parties over the dissention and disarray of the Democrats. Finally, the average Joe will be dismayed by the fact that he or she, in 2006 voted for a "change of direction in Iraq" and did not get it at the hands of many Democratic majorities both Nationally and among the states.

Ours will be a rapidly changing landscape and by '08, the Democrats will be scratching their collective heads wondering how, in this day and age, the Republicans were able to maintain Unity for six years when theirs unraveled in less than two. They capitalized on portability of information, access to constituents via internet, posting out of context sound-bites while the Republicans relied upon it yet exercising no influence over it. The lesson has been learned and in the immortal words of George W. Bush, fool me, er, uh, yer, um gonna, if you fool me, ah, your, gonna, you won't fool me again...or something like that.