The Countdown begins: Well, I watched the President's address tonight and of course, I have an opinion. First, notice that shortly after the speech we went from code Yellow to Code Orange again. I heard on CNN that there are credible sources ( though there were credible sources last time) that we can expect a major terrorist attack in the next few days. An attack where there will be killing of Arabs (read: Muslims) is seen as the perfect excuse to go and wreak havoc on the West. There had been warnings that stirring up the hornet's nest in Iraq would hurt us and it might just do so in the coming days. Al Queda may have just found it's best recruting tool in President Bush.

Then there is the talk of how soon Iraq will become some version of a Middle Eastern Sweden. Hardly. Democracy could have a chance in Iraq, but it must come from the people not be imposed. Anything that is imposed will surely crumble once we are gone because there is no foundation. All of this talk reminds me of the Jacobins as they talked about their new society during the French Revolution. Of course, their abstract idealism decended into anarchy. The Father of modern conservativsm, Edmund Burke knew this and was against public policy based on specualtion. He was much more willing to support the American Revolution that was based on more time-tested ideas. The neocons are more leftist radicals than cautious conservatives. They hope to make a new world in their image (hmmmm....sounds, godlike, no?) and may very well place this globe in chaos. The policies of this administration towards Iraq are based on fantasy and not sound judgement. American foriegn policy has changed from that of friendly, but clumsy giant to one of empire. It is a sad St. Patrick's Day.

Saints preserve us, indeed.