I know we need to have soldiers and weapons, w, even a sad fat old liberal knows that. I have paid my taxes, in some years more than you have, so we could pay our military and stay strong as a nation. I served for two years in the Army. I know that one man is too small for any of those jobs that our military is there to do. I would volunteer but I am too old and too fat to be of much use for combat today. I think we are stuck in Iraq in a way none of us wanted in the beginning of this war. It is easy to see that you didn't wish for this outcome. No one wanted this mess to develop. When I am angry I blame you and Cheney and the neocons for doing this the way that you did; but it is still true that none of you intended to make this mess. One little problem that you have is none of you lead from the front in doing the hard things you ask others to do. Nothing in your world view approximates sacrifice by the leaders and that is contrary to how good is done in our world. If leadership does not have the desire to sacrifice in order to make something good happen in the world why should their followers continue to sacrifice for them? It is just really very contrary to how the real world truly works w; sacrifice is often required to do something good. But it cannot accomplish much good without leadership that knows the price that must be paid and is willing to pay it.

I know that we have sacrificed for the good of the world many times in our history w, and at other times we have lost our way. We killed a lot of Indians to take this continent away from the people living here when we found it. Now we own it and it is a great place to live. We have built a great nation here even if it can't just use force to change the world the way you thought it could. The nation is rich but the world is a large, large place. It is full of good and evil and a lot of stuff in between those two zones of reality. We could destroy all of our wealth in war, w, wars are very destructive of wealth. Some people make a lot of money on wars. Wars still destroy more wealth than they create. Some of us who have lived a while think that the spiritual cost of war works out to be based on the same equations. War can create some good in isolated circumstances but the net amount of good in the world is still always reduced by war. Even a neat little quick war like the one we fought in Iraq can have a bad net effect on the amount of good in the world.

Nothing like hatred is coming from me toward you, w, you have tried to be the best President that you could be. You wanted the job bad enough to cheat to get it, and the Supreme Court lied to get you there. It is kind of sad, w, but the world is a hard place and the future is always out there ahead of our vision and just out of sight. Sometimes I think I can see the future but it is always an illusion. So I have learned to try and find out as much about history as I can in my lifetime. It is fascinating how many times people have tried to use military force to change the world for the better. What is most fascinating is that one or two of them succeeded a little bit now and then. The British Empire did some good in the world along with all of its bad. They built up infrastructure and public health services everywhere they went. That part was good, some of the other parts were equally bad, net effects of that empire are hard to judge. That Empire had some effect on everyone whose nation it touched. Iraq is a badly formed nation because of that Empire.

The Imperial wars of Britain wore out the British people and WWII ended that Empire's days of conquest for good and all. The American Empire and the Soviet Empire fought a Cold War for forty years and then the Soviets fell under the weight of their failed economic system. We are now the last empire standing and the only question is; are we really even interested in holding up an Empire here? That is one heck of a load to bear bubba, and the cost could ruin us. The question is would it even work if we tried to maintain our Accidental Empire in the face of an opposed world? We have had the support of a lot of the people on the planet, including Britain in building our Empire. The war in Iraq has changed that equation.

You see, w, little buddy, it isn't like Gilligans Island out there in the rest of the world. Practical answers need to be found to a lot of questions about our use of military power in the world. Sure we can blow anybody off the map but that isn't a useful level of force if you are trying to make the world a better place. War is a very blunt instrument to use in getting your way and Democracy is a subtle system of government so using war to create more Democracy is not easy. We are learning that lesson once more today in Iraq. Some of us didn't think that learning that lesson one more time was going to serve any good purpose. Being mad at you and the other true believers in spreading Democracy by war is not going to fix that mess. We told you that breaking an already broken society further would not work to create a Democracy without a lot of bloodshed and sacrifice. Now we are locked in a death spiral with Iraq, like the Optimistic Eagle that raped the vulture because he couldn't find another Eagle. The vulture on the way down shouts to the eagle "I hope you're enjoying this", and the Eagle replies "The sex really stinks but the climax is going to be terrific". That is the real story about your effort to force Democracy on Iraq.

I am certain of one thing today as I sit here writing these words, this is not all about you, w, nor is it all about me. It is about our society and whether the death spiral is inevitable. I think that if we keep trying to use force to reform really rotten societies, that we will lose more than the world stands to gain. We contributed to the corruption in Iraq at various times in the past. That doesn't mean that we have to fix it, or that we can fix it, just that we did some evil deeds in the past. We have done some evil and some good all along, w. You see nations are too big to fit into simple categories of behavior like good and evil. Every society has its shades of grey. I love this country w, more than you can imagine and I know that you love it too, probably more than I can imagine.

Some of us think that we need to refocus some of our efforts toward what is happening inside our nation in order to strengthen the base of our wealth. The vast Middle Class in the USA is threatened by forces little understood by the social philosophers who focus on the rest of the world. Yes more democracy would be good for everyone but it will not happen just because we whip someone's military, hands down. The people in any nation will either quickly take control of their own destiny or they will become locked in a death spiral with their conqueror. That is how the world works, even if they welcome you with open arms, they want you gone right after you came. God bless and keep you safe in these uncomfortable days of the end of your regime.