AN EMPIRE, NOT A REPUBLIC

Our forces are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, the insurgents in Iraq and now the rebels in Somalia. Yesterday, our navy shelled rebel positions at the request of the government of Somalia. Yes, the rebels are Islamic folks. This seems to be the pattern, and one that is shaping up to be a worldwide battle.

Meanwhile, we are making faces at Russia, and they are making faces back. We talk about invading Syria and Iran. We threaten Sudan, but they tell us to mind our own business while they slaughter enemy tribes.

The North Korea thing could erupt at any time. And China might invade Taiwan. Then what do we do?

Where will we get the soldiers and the capital? We could hire them like King George did the Hessians. That would be outsourcing for sure. Or perhaps, draft illegal immigrants. The money? Well, we can always print more.

This must be Monday.

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* Foreign journalists have been reporting that American soldiers are refusing orders to go into dangerous areas in Iraq. They also claim that our troops have blogs and wrote so many anti-war tracts that the Pentagon now forbids internet blogs by soldiers who are reluctant to fight.

* Mr. Bandwagon, Mitt Romney, seems certain to win the Republican primaries still months away because his leading opponents are just plain nuts. We're talking McCain and Giuliani. You can't be serious about them having all that power. Of course, Ron Paul is the people's choice, but what's that got to do with it? He'd bring back the Constitution and avoid "entangling foreign alliances." How could we have wars then?

* The Lebanese Army - encouraged and supplied by Uncle Sam - blasted the Palestinians in their squalid refugee camps again over the weekend. The refugees have been there since 1948, when Israeli forces took their homes and farms ("this land is our land, God gave this land to me") and drove them into camps in Lebanon. The justification is a search for Islamist terrorists. The Palestinians are used to this. About 25 years ago, Ariel Sharon led Israel's army into the camps and slaughtered thousands of refugees. Sharon was cashiered out of the government for that terrible crime, but he was elected president of Israel soon after. The beat goes on with Palestinians as the big losers. They lost property, livelihoods and civil rights. Before the world agreed to their destruction, Palestine produced the highest ratio of doctors, engineers and teachers in the Middle East. Now they produce terrorists. This is another case of BLOWBACK.

* Secretary of Defense Gates (Rummy's replacement) says, "We might have to remain in Iraq much the way we stayed in Korea after that war." Well, I guess. We have to stay to watch the oil and to protect Israel.

* O'Reilly, Hannity, Beck. Oh, nevermind.

* One-and-a-half-million Christian Iraqis worshipped and maintained schools in Saddam's Iraq. (They speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.) They comprise 3% of the population. Now, they are scared and keeping their heads down. The civil war goes on around them, and their neighbors are less friendly than when the mad tyrant ran the country.