William K. Wolfrum

[The Democratic Party has] been effectively taken over by a small group on the left of the party that is protectionist, isolationist and basically will – and very, very hyperpartisan. So it pains me.

– Joe Lieberman, March 29, 2008

For an American to use the word “isolation” in any form when regarding U.S. foreign relations, it’s not just stupid, it’s a horrifying insult to the millions around the world that have lost their lives in one way or another to the U.S. military and U.S. policies.

Nottheenemy.com puts the number of people killed due to U.S. foreign policy since World War II at anywhere between more than 10 million to almost 17 million. And that hasn’t even counted the current Occupation of Iraq and most of the Afghanistan attack.

In 2001, Matthew White of the “Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century,” put the number killed in wars for the 20th century at 188 million with the U.S. more than playing its part in it all. And with a great hand from the U.S., there seems to be little that would make one think that number will be any smaller when historians count up the number of people killed by war in the 21st century.

There are three remaining candidates for who will be the next U.S. President. And John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are far from being isolationists. Because that’s the last thing the U.S. has ever been. And there isn’t enough optimism on the planet for one to think that will change in the next four-to-eight years, if not ever.

The U.S. is a warring nation. Period. When the United States Government wants something of another country or its own citizens, people die. And the entire world knows it.

It’s why Turkish journalist Elif Özmenek wrote that the U.S. should be put in the Guinness Book of World’s Records as the “Most Interventionist Nation in History.” And it’s why any American who tries to make an argument that the U.S. “can’t afford to be isolationist” should be immediately sent off to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or anywhere else where America is using its military might to get the change it desires. Or more perhaps more correctly put, to get the dollars it desires.

Here’s just a partial list of U.S. military involvements, from squashing internal strife, to overthrowing elected officials, to fighting in massive world conflicts, from Wounded Knee to Fallujah:

The United States is Not Isolationist
(more…)

Yesterday I got my ass handed to me by my Mom in Scrabble. 345-313. She clinched it about half-way through when she put down all her letters for “Derange.” When we figured it out to be 81 points she said, very sweetly with just a hint of patronizing, “Well, that’s not so much for a seven-letter word.”

“No Mom, it’s actually pretty good,” said I, in a 100-point plus hole that I could never climb out of, as my Mom silently reveled in her triumph. She is sweet, but highly competitive, which is probably why all of us feel she will win her battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

So my Mom is home now again. She had to spend an extra 10 days in the hospital after getting a bad stomach infection due to having a nearly non-existent immune system after her latest round of chemo. Two days ago was the first day she could eat real food again after living two weeks eating only broth and Jello and dropping to about 105 pounds. Yesterday she made her old favorite, homemade chicken noodle soup, and my Mom, Dad and I ate til we dropped. Damn it was good. Then my Mom planted her little body on the couch. “Monk” was on, you know.

It’s great to see my parents together in their little routine; my Mom making sure everything is clean and in its place, my Dad either looking for something he misplaced or telling my Mom which pill she should take and when. Then marking it down. And checking it off. Occasionally my Dad will give his political views which are, well, a little too Little Green Footballs for my taste. But I politely turn the other cheek when he explains how nuking Iran would really settle down everything in the Middle East. Many of us have learned that talking politics with your parents is not always the best idea, and now, with larger issues on the table, for us, political differences are quite irrelevant.

So luckily my Dad’s power to run the country are somewhat limited, and the stuff he does have power over he does well and is as nice a guy as you’ll ever meet in person. One thing I will always give him credit for is this: He owned a trucking company for years, and if all businesses or corporations handled things the way he did, it would be a better country indeed. He didn’t need anyone telling him what the minimum wage is because he always paid more (except to me, when as a pre-teen and teen he’d hire me to unload trucks and pull weeds.)

But he treated his workers with respect, paid them well, gave them health insurance and even matched donations into their retirement plans up to a certain amount. Keystone Trucking Service is gone now, but it was a business he was proud of and rightly so. As an old-school Republican, he talked the talk, but he also walked the walk, and a lot of drivers made some very good money in the three decades or so he had his company.

My parents have now pretty much accepted that a bone marrow transplant is their best and really only option. My Mom is in remission now, but that can only last for so long, possibly not even a year. She will soon undergo more chemo in preparation for the transplant, though no donor has been found as of yet.

We’re having a Marrow Donor Drive on March 29, and if you’re anywhere near the High Desert, California area, let me know and I’ll tell you all about it. I can also send anyone interested a flyer, and if anyone knows how to turn a Microsoft Word document into a Jpeg, let me know, it would be most helpful. And, like I wrote before, if you have any questions or would like to help in any way, please e-mail me at wkwolfrum(at)gmail(dot)com or check out marrow.org to learn more about the incredible need for bone marrow donors this country faces.

So that’s where we’re at. Living life one day at a time as best as possible. It’s wonderful to see my Mom feeling so good and enjoying her life again without any problems. She’s just this happy little control freak who does the “warsh” as a form of relaxation. Like most from Pittsburgh, she’s an interesting one, my Mom.

I just want her to stay around longer. At 67, she is sharp and happy and beautiful. Even if it means losing at Scrabble again and again, I don’t want my Mom to go yet.

–WKW

You know, being a political junkie has its down sides. It’s an addiction that really requires that you open up the door and walk outside so you can see for yourself that the sky is not in fact following.

As mentioned before (and will be mentioned again) I’m in the United States these days while my mother is fighting her battle with leukemia. Currently I’m working with the National Marrow Donor Program, putting together a donor drive which will be held on March 29, in Victorville, Calif. For the briefest of updates, my mom is doing well right now, and her attitude and demeanor are otherworldly. She’s an amazing woman.

My Mom is also a perfect example of an American. Because being here and being away a bit more from the sordid world of U.S. politics and all the hellishness that entails, I’ve come to feel the great need to put this in print, lest their be any doubt:

Americans are really good people.

Now this is a non-political post. Whatever side of the fence people are on is of no matter. And while bad things happen and evil people do exist in the U.S., this is a nation of 300 million. And the vast majority of them are very good people indeed.

Getting reacquainted with the U.S. and looking at Americans, here’s what I’ve seen:

Americans are quick to smile and be kind to strangers.

Americans are hard-working and family-oriented.

Americans are funny and love to make others laugh or smile.

Americans are generous with both time aand money to causes they believe in.

Americans are polite to strangers.

Americans are helpful and carrying.

Americans are good people.

And think about those in the military and those that have signed up, even today. Once again, your opinion of the wars the U.S. is engaged in is not the issue. The issue is the incredible amount of men and women that volunteer for armed service, even full well knowing they will likely be put into combat sooner or later. And the vast majority of them do so because they believe it is their duty to do what they can to keep Americans safe. All politics aside, those in the military are remarkable people.

I very well may end up living the rest of life as a resident of Brazil or another country, but I’m proud to be an American. And I will keep being a voice in the void shouting out whenever I see things I feel are wrong with how my nation is governed or other things I feel are wrong. And I do so because I was taught I should. I was taught freedom of speech is our most valuable right.

I once wrote an essay here titled “We the People are Murderers.” My point was, and still is that Americans need to regain control of its government, and that the actions of the State are therefore the actions of the people. I don’t back down from that one bit, but being around more Americans for awhile does give me more hope for our nation’s future.

Drats. I’m afraid it’s really difficult for the political junkie in me to stay quiet. But my intent for this piece remains the same.

We the People are very good people, indeed.

–WKW

Hi, my name’s Bill, and I wear a Speedo.

Not all the time, mind you. I mean, I’m not wearing one now, or anything. But at Brazilian beaches, I wear a sunga, as they call it in Brazil. And let me make this clear right off the bat - I’ll show you a picture of me in all my Sungaesque glory the very moment Bush’s bombs create an eternal Middle Eastern peace.

That being said, I’ve grown more comfortable in a sunga. The first time I wore one was in the beach oasis of Salvador, Bahia, and I felt, well, uncomfortable. I was about 20 pounds heavier, and my brain was struggling getting around the cultural shift taking place. Normally while swimming, I used to wear big ol’ baggy swim trunks. It’s the American way, after all.

Then one day I found myself on a beach basically wearing a small handkerchief covering my bubblies. It took some getting used to, let me tell you. But now I feel better tooling about in my mankini. It’s not that I’m in better shape as much as it’s that I’m used to it from a cultural standpoint. If Brazilian and European men can walk around beaches and swimming pools with their peni’s neatly outlined in a sunga, then so can I, damn it. I am cosmopolitan, with heavy accent on the “it.”

This past weekend I had the chance to enjoy some time in Rio de Janeiro (the photo above is of one of Rio’s crowded, eclectic and fun beaches. We stayed in the area known as Ipanema. Yes, just like the song. And I was a sunga-wearing madman.

Do I feel more free? Perhaps. Do I feel more in touch with Brazilian culture? Sure. Am I pushing the limit by asking myself questions smack dab in the middle of this blog post? Absolutely.

But my experiences in sungas have helped me learn, actually. I have a better understanding of different cultures, partly from wearing tiny clothing that truly shows off my inner leg hair. My abundant inner leg hair.

It’s a small thingIt’s a small lesson, but one all the world’s citizens could learn from, I believe. Dipping your toe into other cultures helps you understand how alike we really are, deep down. Americans are notorious for not caring about, or being unwilling to learn about other cultures. Which could be a reason why we as Americans barely blink when our government kills millions of people of other cultures. We are not a culture that walks in other people’s shoes, nor really cares when they are blown out of them.

So men, if you haven’t done so before, put yourself on a foreign beach somewhere where a Speedo is considered proper attire for men. And while you’re busily digging sand from your scrotal region, you just might learn a lesson about life.

Of course, another lesson to learn is that when a waiter says he’s great at taking pictures, don’t automatically believe him. That partial nose and beard you see on the bottom right would be me, enjoying a meal with my wife, family and friends.

–WKW

One of the many things my wife and I share is a minor sense of showmanship. Ok, maybe more than minor. This Christmas Eve we both serenaded each other and her family for a while on the Karaoke machine. Though my attempt at Alanis Morrissette’s “You oughtta know” (a dare from my wife) was truly a disaster.

But aside from that, we always seem to sneak ourselves in front of crowds. Along with blogging (at the “Wow, look how humble he is” named WilliamKWolfrum.com among other sites), I’ve been an announcer and the host of a street festival among other things. I’m even toying with the idea of creating a bare-bones podcast. And my wife, well, one time on a cruise ship … wait, that one deserves its own post. Remind me to write about it some day to my wife’s dismay).

But I was thinking about this and thought about how the Internet has just become a haven for those like me who were raised in a culture where being a star of some sort is the ultimate way of having value.

It can be as simple as when I was playing baseball and would adopt new stances based on players I worshiped (the ugliest was when I, a right-hander, adopted George Brett’s stance. To a modicum of success, but technically awful. Normally I stayed with a hybrid Fred Lynn/Willie Stargell set up at the plate.

It can be as complex and devastating as girls killing themselves to stay thin like their favorite actress.

But the ray of sunshine on us poor souls who have been brought up to believe that fame is everything, and refuse to disbelieve it, even at a subatomic level, is that the Internet is here. For those of us who can’t resist a pulpit, we have the ultimate one at our disposal.

I still have high hopes for the Internet. I truly believe that if our government is ever to be reined in and cease to be an oligarchy run by the privileged few, it will be because more and more people will have kept getting more and more informed of their own country and other countries on the Internet. We must work to keep the Internet from those that want it controlled and watched.

I guess, in the end, I think it’s somewhat funny (in a liberal conspiricist sort of way) is that the TV shows and movies that helped put a few generations to sleep will indirectly help wake them up. After all, we all saw “Erin Brockovich,” right (in Julia Roberts’ Oscar-winning turn)? We know one person can make a difference. Years of insipid programming later, we have finally found something of value from it all - the secret and shameful desire to be like the insipid people on the insipid programs.

Few of us really want to be “stars” of any type (The experience on the cruise ship with my wife proved that to me. Seriously, it’s a really good story). But with a stage set for us, most are willing to have their say. And more and more are joining the choir.

December is surefire in its ability to make you think of the future. One of my great hopes is that the Internet continues to reach more and more people, and connect more and more of them until the majority of the planet knows what their rulers are doing. I’d like to watch what happens then.

–WKW

Crossposted at Shakesville

When the Michael Vick / dog fighting / NFL story was in full bloom, sports writers quickly jumped on a concept - why would a story about injuring dogs create such a sensation, while the ongoing problem of domestic abuse among NFL players barely cause a ripple?

“Why is it, then, that we barely shrug when we hear of athletes beating up their wives, girlfriends or acquaintances?” wrote John Sleeper of the Everett, Wash., Herald

“For the life of me, I can’t understand why the public outrage surrounding Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick doesn’t extend to other pro athletes and entertainers who would rather hurt people than dogs,” wrote Errol Louis of the N.Y. Daily News.

Others wrote and spoke about this phenomenon as well, all with the same wide-eyed naivety - How is it possible that a dog abuser gets so much media attention while a spouse abuser is barely noticed?

The answer was as simple then as it is now - it’s because the journalists that should be telling the public about those spousal abusers aren’t doing their job.

Case in point was last night’s Sunday Night Football match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals. As the game progressed, much was being made about the inability of Steelers’ running back Willie Parker to hold onto the ball in the wet conditions. Much was also made of the fact that the Steelers really had no one to back up Parker.

Not much was made of the fact that Parker’s backup, Najeh Davenport, who was somewhat mysteriously held out due to a minor injury, may be a liability for the Steelers and the NFL, as he awaits a February trial for domestic violence, child endangering and unlawful restraint in an incident involving the mother of his five year old son.

Oh, the announcers mentioned Davenport briefly, but mostly just to note that he was unavailable for action. And few, if any, big-time columnists noted Davenport’s October arrest.

Davenport - who goes by the ever-so-witty nickname of “Dookie” for being arrested in college for breaking into a girl’s home and defecating on her laundry - will likely stay with the Steelers through the season or not, as the Steelers need him on the field, and the NFL and the team are apparently unconcerned about his recent arrest.

And it’s hard to keep up with Davenport’s case, actually, as so few are writing about him at all, outside of his potential as a fantasy football player.

So while Michael Vick and O.J. Simpson help sportswriters fill millions of column inches in papers, web sites and magazines, try to remember Najeh Davenport and others like him.

Because while sportswriters have no problems avoiding the domestic abuse problem so prevalent in the sports’ world, they will at least occasionally wonder why their readers don’t get more worked up about them.

–WKW

So, Pete Stark, a man who has the guts to admit he doesn’t believe in a god, didn’t have the guts to stand by his statements against an imperialistic President who has sent Americans to their death in what basically amounts to imperialistic oil deal.

Fuck that.

There were several great posts and articles today that highlighted the inanity of American political discourse. First, there’s the reason why we’re in Iraq - the oil. From Jim Holt in London Review of Books:

Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves. That is more than five times the total in the United States. And, because of its long isolation, it is the least explored of the world’s oil-rich nations. A mere two thousand wells have been drilled across the entire country; in Texas alone there are a million. It has been estimated, by the Council on Foreign Relations, that Iraq may have a further 220 billion barrels of undiscovered oil; another study puts the figure at 300 billion. If these estimates are anywhere close to the mark, US forces are now sitting on one quarter of the world’s oil resources. The value of Iraqi oil, largely light crude with low production costs, would be of the order of $30 trillion at today’s prices. For purposes of comparison, the projected total cost of the US invasion/occupation is around $1 trillion.
Who will get Iraq’s oil? One of the Bush administration’s ‘benchmarks’ for the Iraqi government is the passage of a law to distribute oil revenues.

In commenting on Holt’s piece, here’s what Moonbat at Mahablog has to say: “What’s galling to me is that it’s been obvious from day one that getting the oil was a huge reason behind Operation Iraqi Liberation, and yet this is the elephant in the dining room, that no one dares talk about.”

One would think that at this point, only a complete idiot, or mindless right-wing fanatic would argue that Iraq has anything to do with fighting terrorism. It doesn’t. It never did. It had to do with taking over Iraq, and taking its oil. Period. But, as Arthur Silber points out, we aren’t allowed to speak about that, because truth is no longer a part of the national discourse:

For this is where we are in the United States, nearing the end of the Year of Our Lord 2007: the truth is not merely unpleasant, an uninvited guest who makes conversation difficult and awkward. Truth is the enemy; truth is to be destroyed. To attempt to speak the truth on any subject of importance requires a deep reserve of determination, for to speak the truth requires that one first sweep away an infinite number of rationalizations, false alternatives, and numerous other failures of logic and the most rudimentary forms of thought — as well as the endless lies. On that single occasion in a thousand or a million when a person overcomes these barriers and speaks the truth, he or she discovers an additional, terrible truth: almost no one wants to hear it.

So while the truth is out there, the political discourse forces us to look the other way. And the truth is blaringly loud, especially when it comes to the thirst for oil and conquest of this administration. Because they have no plans on ever leaving Iraq, not without the oil, at least. And they are working overtime to create another supervillian in Iran, so the U.S. can further its empire in the Middle East, as well.

Because somehow, we’re now supposed to believe that Iran poses an existential threat to the entire globe, and it’s up to the U.S. to stop them. Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria points out the lie of that:

The American discussion about Iran has lost all connection to reality. Norman Podhoretz, the neoconservative ideologist whom Bush has consulted on this topic, has written that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is “like Hitler … a revolutionary whose objective is to overturn the going international system and to replace it in the fullness of time with a new order dominated by Iran and ruled by the religio-political culture of Islamofascism.” For this staggering proposition Podhoretz provides not a scintilla of evidence.

Here is the reality. Iran has an economy the size of Finland’s and an annual defense budget of around $4.8 billion. It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110 times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are quietly or actively allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with an Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on?

I have a great sense of trepidation about the 2008 elections. There seems to be this feeling amongst progressives - mostly unsaid - that if we can hold on until 2008, Democrats will get a stranglehold on Congress and take over the Presidency and sanity will return. But for one, that just isn’t a given. Americans have seen now that democracy in the U.S. has reached a hit-and-miss, gray area. Maybe it will be a landslide. But maybe the results will leave us mortified.

And two, even if the Democrats take over everything, who’s to say that the course will be corrected? The U.S. will still be fighting to maintain its occupation of Iraq, and could very well be fighting to overthrow Iran. Or worse. And it’s not like oil will suddenly stop being relevant.

Today was one of those days that these issues, these truths, struck me hard and left me feeling sad and powerless. We are a nation at the tipping point. A nation where the economy, the constitution, freedom and its very existence are hanging in the balance. We are a nation that scoffs at international law, implements torture, unleashes armies of mercenaries, spies on its own citizens, takes away health insurance from its own children while mocking them, and a whole boatload of other atrocities and scandals that would make the Founding Fathers wonder why they went to all the trouble.

Basically, the current U.S. position on foreign - and domestic, for that matter - affairs is that we want to take over the world’s oil supply by force. And that’s going to end badly. Yet the House of Representatives is voting on resolutions because of the faux outrage syndrome seemingly perfected by the right, because Pete Stark said what he felt. In fact, he said what the majority of Americans felt.

And he apologized for it.

Fuck that.

–WKW

I grew up a sports fan and have slavishly worshiped Major League Baseball, the NBA, NFL and boxing. Plus I have dabbled in other sports like tennis, golf, auto racing, bowling, strongest man in the world competitions, track & field, triathlons, eating contests, etc.

I have rooted on many a player, athlete and team. I have been, and continue to be a fan. And it is only recently that I learned something: being a soccer fan is harder.

Being a fan of American football is more intense because of the scarcity of games in a campaign. But being a soccer fan is still tougher - a nearly endless roller coaster ride filled with dream-like highs and spirit-shattering lows.

For me this season, being a fan of the Brazilian League team Cruzeiro has been like that. Yes, as in the vernacular, I am Cruzeirense. I am a fan of the Foxes. And they have been particularly thrilling this season.

Things started out bad. Really, really bad. In Brazil, the soccer season starts with the state championships. Cruzeiro is from the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais. Minas is just a fine state, and all, very interesting history, very beautiful. But it’s not much of a soccer powerhouse, like say Sao Paulo or Rio. There are only two Series A teams here - Cruzeiro, and arch-rival Atlético.

So Cruzeiro stumbled past minnows like Tupi and Caldense to make it to the Minas State Championship finals against Atlético.

The two-game final was a true nightmare for Cruzeiro, as an uninspired and lousy team went out and got outhustled and brutalized by Atlético 4-0 in the first game. How bad was it? The final goal was scored from midfield while the keeper had his back turned. That’s how bad it was.

Cruzeiro went on to lose the title to their much-hated, and generally considered stupid and immature rivals (ask a Flamengo fan, they’ll totally agree). Being that this is Brazil, management pretty much fired everyone and sent the keeper (Fabio) out on a soul-searching walkabout or something.

After starting the Brazilian League with a slew of losses, however, something odd happened. Cruzeiro started winning. And scoring buckets of goals. All the additions worked, mixing in with younger stars to create a wicked fast team that combined a near total disregard for defense with a high-scoring offense. Add to that a return of two of its previous stars (Wagner and Alecsandro) and a player showing up from Columbia (Marcelo Moreno), and Cruzeiro managed to get itself to second place.

It has been a wild ride. Cruzeiro still is seven points off of Sao Paulo’s torrid pace (in 25 games, Sao Paulo has only allowed seven goals), but remains a joyous team to watch. But heck, even that is just mentioning two tournaments. Cruzeiro also suffered heartbreaking defeats in the Brazil Cup and South American Cup. And next year they will very likely be competing the biggest South American tournament of all, Copa Libertadores.

To top it all off, this weekend is O Classico. Cruzeiro gets a chance to get further revenge on Atlético on Sunday, and could push them further toward relegation with a win. A loss to Atlético at this juncture is completely and totally unacceptable. It better be a classic for the Blue.

It’s all nearly too much, actually. Basketball fans get style and speed, football fans intensity, and baseball fans get a long walk in the park. But being a soccer fan is just harder. Much, much harder.

–WKW

Here is a given: George W. Bush and the neocon dream team building his foreign policy could truly care less about terrorists.

Because it’s quite easy to point at people like David Brooks and scoff at what an idiot he is and ponder how he manages to still get published. It’s just too easy, in fact. Which leads one to the conclusion that it’s blindingly obvious that fighting terrorism is the least of the neo-cons concerns. They are empire building, or at least, empire building as it goes for the year 2007. And the Kristols, Krauthammers and Brooks of the world could care less how they are perceived provided that their long-term goals are met. And they are being met.

However, there are many in the U.S. that believe an evil terrorist menace is coming to enslave us all unless we bog down our military in Iraq, then take over Iran and Syria, as well. These are Americans have such a stunted world view that they literally believe that Islamic extremists are mindless zombies. You know, the types that just chase after you at 1 mile per hour, arms outstretched, chanting “Shaaarrriiiaaa Laaaaw, Shaaarrriiiaaa Laaaaw.”

This is what many Americans think we’re fighting. Literally. There are Americans out there that believe the vast majority of all Muslims are subhuman animals, who only care of enslaving and murdering. And that we should not care how many of them we kill or displace, because - as the cartoon above shows - they are cockroaches.

Basically, many Americans have been pulled in by one of the oldest tricks in the book - the dehumanizing of a different culture. It’s a ploy that always seems to work, and we actually have perfect recent examples of it from Nazi Germany and Rwanda. But history is ignored, and right now, there are millions of Americans who have gladly accepted the dehumanization of Muslims as preached by politicians and the media.

And while the majority of Americans haven’t fallen for this despicable ploy, enough have to give those in charge of the U.S. the green light to kill as many Muslims as they need in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, or wherever else so that they can continue their plan of building an American empire and bending the world to U.S. might.

More Sunday reading

– Frank Rich: As the Iraqis Stand Down, We’ll Stand Up.

– Bartcop: We Are Going To Hit Iran…Bigtime.

– Glenn Greenwald: The DC Establishment versus American public opinion.

– Finally, if you haven’t seen Robert Greenwald’s clip of Rudy Giuliani’s putting the emergency command center in WTC 7, watch it below. If I’m a candidate in a debate against ol’ Mayor Rudy, this is the only thing I talk about, regardless of the question. This issue alone shows Giuliani’s true character.

–WKW

When I was a younger man, a boy really, I inflated my every accomplishment - which were in fact quite few. I was quick to brag about anything positive in my life, and gladly exaggerate to shine a brighter light on myself. To be viewed as more than I was.

At 40, I have grown up to a point, and look back and see how ridiculous I was. And while I feel a slight sense of unease at who I was, I have the confidence of knowing I’m likely not the only one who has made this journey.

But I can say with complete confidence that the President of the United States has not made this trek. And his childlike ego, which couldn’t resist being stroked in a new biography, is showcasing how easily he can lie, even about the grandest of decisions, and even to the noblest of people.

President George W. Bush, from the book “Dead Certain”:

“Yeah, I can’t remember, I’m sure I said, ‘This is the policy, what happened?’” But, he added, “Again, Hadley’s got notes on all of this stuff,” referring to Stephen J. Hadley, his national security adviser.

“State of Denial” Page 196:

Bremer huddled in a tiny office in the Republican Palace with four of his aides: Scott Carpenter from State, whom Liz Cheney had put in charge of the Iraqi governance issue; Meghan O’Sullivan, the State Department official who had come over to Garner’s team with Tom Warrick, only to be chased out by Cheney’s office and sneaked back in with the tacit approval of Rumsfeld and Hadley; Ryan Crocker of the State Department; and Roman Martinez, a 24-year-old Harvard graduate who had worked with Feith at the Pentagon. Each of the five had a copy of the de-Baathification order.

“The White House, DOD, and State all signed off on this,” Bremer said. So let’s give it one final reading and, unless there’s some major screwup in the language, I’ll sign it.”

The next morning, May 16, Bremer signed the de-Baathification order. Later that day, he wrote in his book, he e-mailed his wife back home in the United States, as he tried to do each day, to tell her about the response he’d heard from Americans on the ground. “There was a sea of bitching and moaning with lots of them saying how hard it was going to be. I reminded them that the president’s guidance is clear: de-Baathification will be carried out even if at a cost to administrative efficiency. An ungood time was had by all.”

N.Y Times, Sept. 4, 2007:

A previously undisclosed exchange of letters shows that President Bush was told in advance by his top Iraq envoy in May 2003 of a plan to “dissolve Saddam’s military and intelligence structures,” a plan that the envoy, L. Paul Bremer, said referred to dismantling the Iraqi Army.

Mr. Bremer provided the letters to The New York Times on Monday after reading that Mr. Bush was quoted in a new book as saying that American policy had been “to keep the army intact” but that it “didn’t happen.”

The dismantling of the Iraqi Army in the aftermath of the American invasion is now widely regarded as a mistake that stoked rebellion among hundreds of thousands of former Iraqi soldiers and made it more difficult to reduce sectarian bloodshed and attacks by insurgents. In releasing the letters, Mr. Bremer said he wanted to refute the suggestion in Mr. Bush’s comment that Mr. Bremer had acted to disband the army without the knowledge and concurrence of the White House.

“We must make it clear to everyone that we mean business: that Saddam and the Baathists are finished,” Mr. Bremer wrote in a letter that was drafted on May 20, 2003, and sent to the president on May 22 through Donald H. Rumsfeld, then secretary of defense.

After recounting American efforts to remove members of the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein from civilian agencies, Mr. Bremer told Mr. Bush that he would “parallel this step with an even more robust measure” to dismantle the Iraq military.

One day later, Mr. Bush wrote back a short thank you letter. “Your leadership is apparent,” the president wrote. “You have quickly made a positive and significant impact. You have my full support and confidence.”

Keith Olbermann, Countdown Special Comment, Sept. 4, 2007:

Finally tonight, a Special Comment about Mr. Bush’s trip, and his startling admission of the true motive for this war, which was revealed in his absence.

And so he is back from his annual surprise gratuitous photo-op in Iraq, and what a sorry spectacle it was.

But it was nothing compared to the spectacle of one unfiltered, unguarded, horrifying quotation in the new biography to which Mr. Bush has consented.

As he deceived the troops at Al-Asad Air Base yesterday with the tantalizing prospect that some of them might not have to risk being killed and might get to go home, Mr. Bush probably did not know that, with his own words, he had already proved that he had been lying — is lying… will be lying — about Iraq.

He presumably did not know, that there had already appeared those damning excerpts from Robert Draper’s book “Dead Certain.”

“I’m playing for October-November,” Mr. Bush said to Draper.

That, evidently, is the time during which, he thinks he can sell us the real plan.

Which is, to quote him: “To get us in a position where the presidential candidates, will be comfortable about sustaining a presence.”

Comfortable, that is, with saying about Iraq, again quoting the President, “stay longer.”

And there it is, sir. We’ve caught you.

The President of the United States is a child. A lying, insecure child who will do and say anything to appear a success. It is why he speaks so fondly of a distant time in the future, when he’ll be viewed as a hero. That is how children and the perpetually immature think.

And yet this man-child, with ungodly military power at his disposal and without the ability to truly comprehend human suffering outside of his own, will continue his reckless plan of occupying Iraq, as plans to attack Iran are readied. All because no adult in the room will stand up to him.

–WKW