What Might Have Been and What It Is

Just imagine for a moment if President Bush had resisted his baser urges and the machinations of the oil industry (using its proxies Rumsfeld and Cheney). With the warring parties in Afghanistan pacified, and its government growing in strength every day thanks to American generosity and military might, and with Al-Qaeda in Afghanstan and Pakistan routed after a long fierce battle, Bush would possibly be remembered as one of our greatest presidents ... one I would have supported. Instead, his arrogance and failure to be focused will ensure he is remembered for this (and the thousands of other innocent deaths his adminstration is indirectly responsible for).

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Taliban militants hanged a teenager in southern Afghanistan because he had U.S. money in his pocket, and they stuffed five $1 bills in his mouth as a warning to others not to use dollars, police said Monday. Taliban militants elsewhere killed eight police.

The 15-year-old boy was hanged from a tree on Sunday in Helmand, the most violent province in the country and the world's No. 1 poppy-growing region.

You failed miserably, Mr. President. You wonder why people hold you in such disdain?