Date Line May 9, 2007

There is a Rule which Bush is totally ignorant of:

Change the rules and the serious players will stand aside and watch.

When new York toughened it's gun laws, observers noted a marked decrease in gun related crime; and boasted how well their new laws were working.

It took time for application of the new law to work its way through the courts; but when it had, violent crime soared to record heights.

So it is with all new rules. People want to see how they are applied, and then will act accordingly. In some cases, the rules changes are for the better, in others they just require adjustment by professional rule-breakers.

Bush boasted of a "surge" and, in Iraq, the number of civilian-on-civilian attacks decreased. Sectarian violence requires adjustment.

The new rules, the deployment of new troops, requires observation, before the farces of terror can circumvent the positioning of those whose only real interest is making it home alive.

Is there a personal reason for the National Guard deployed to Iraq to want to fight-the-good-fight?

If you read the newspaper, listened to, or saw, the recent news of six Islamic types who planned to attack Fort Dix New Jersey; and you read of the devastation caused by a mid-western tornado, you know the Guardsmen would rather be where they belong: home protecting their loved ones.

Of interest, A Moslem Clerics, speaking of the usurpation of his faith said of the six what we would say of Right-wing Evangelicals who sponsored Bush's "born again" murder spree:  "This is not what our religion teaches us. These people claim to be Muslim (or Christian), but I don't know how they can be. Islam is a religion of peace (as Jesus taught his followers), not of violence, and this goes against the grain of our religion."

Apparently the six realized something beyond the mentality of both Homeland Security and the military: One need not gain access to the base to kill troops who are training there. Automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades can pierce, or traverse, wire-link fence.

Bush and his "war on terror" is as much a failure as the "war on poverty" and "war on drugs" have been. And for the same reasons: Republican Evangelicals have stuck their noses into the battle and syphoned off as much of the money and energy as they could.

Supposedly we are seeing the "newest breed of threat": loosely organized domestic militants inspired by, but unconnected to international terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. Of course one wonders about the Timothy McVey and recently mentioned types: anarchists.

We cannot have a war without a clearly defined enemy. However, we can have "1984" and "Big Brother" and the enemy without body or face who serves to justify repression and mind control.

Shall we improve our educational system and introduce courses in "double-speak" into the elementary school system?

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