Gut check

Well, I caught some of the press conference this morning on the intelligence breakdown @ Iraq. And I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated that our intelligence seems to be so flawed. I'm frustrated that we went to war on bad intel. And I'm frustrated that people will blame the President for acting on the information given to him.

I thought Iraq had WMD. A lot of people did. We found a lot of sarin gas; we found mustard gas. I thought those were WMDs. (Well, okay, those ARE WMDs). I see that Iraq tried to obtain uranium. There are all kinds of reasons for that - medical uses, to provide electrical power, etc. Okay, so we just found a couple tons of nuclear material. But, admittedly these were probably not a huge, immediate threat to the U.S.

Bad information. I guess life isn't like one of those Tom Clancy/James Bond novels, right? I still think we did the right thing in Iraq, but time will tell.

In other news, I'm also frustrated that the current fight for the presidency seems to be so ugly. Hate and invective fly on both sides. I almost feel like I'm the dad on a family vacation from hell, watching two kids in the back seat sniping at each other, and I just want to tear them apart. I don't care who started it. And whoever wins in November, we're going to have to live with each other. So if I hear anyone on EITHER side, doing the equivalent of "nyah, nyah, na-nyah, nyah", then I'm going to turn this car around, and NOBODY's going to Disneyland!

Sigh. If only it were that easy. I worry that we've become so emotionally invested in our own positions that we become incapable of seeing anyone else's side. I hope not. I think not. I believe that the vast majority of Americans are capable of disagreeing without becoming disagreeable. Their voices aren't as shrill or as loud as some people on either side of some imaginary "political divide". But they are there.

At this point, I have to say that I think that whoever wins in November will do (I hope, I hope, I hope) what he thinks is right for the country. Personally, I'd rather it was Bush.

But then again, I really liked Returner, so you pretty much have to take anything I say with a grain of salt, right?