Numbed into Silence?

I'm not sure that the above quite adequately describes my state the last few days regarding the news, but it comes probably about as close as I'll get. Instead of posting, I've been ravenously trying to make sense of what I can glean from news reports both here and abroad about what's currently going on in Iraq. I mean, with what we've seen so far of how honest this administration puts any case forward, I'm not just willing to believe that this cleric Sadr is the "baddest of the bad."

Yet after much reading, I only know that indeed, he sounds like he's very angry with the U.S. but it's too hard to tell how much our actions may have spurred that sentiment. It's too easy to say, "Well, sheesh, the only places we're having trouble are those places where they liked Saddam because they were treated better than most."

Yes, there apparently are spots in Iraq that are relatively more safe than others. But the more I hear Bush and Company say things like, "the people doing this are doing it because they hate freedom," the more tempted I am to vomit. This isn't freedom we've given them. We are an occupying force, and whenever we feel like it, we basically turn cities into prisons from which few can escape.

Some of the hardball tactics aren't going to change the minds of those who would cheer when the contractors were killed and displayed last week. Meanwhile, if you go to the Blackwater site (Blackwater being the "private army" contractor these men worked for), you see people all dressed up like black stormtroopers training massive weapons on you with a cheery logo beneath that reads something like, "Protecting Freedom."

Silly me, but freedom for me isn't discerned at the end - either end - of a massive shotgun.

I'm also terribly worried that when all is said and done, the 12 Americans (and lots more Iraqis) dead today will actually turn out to be significantly more. The chaos right now doesn't make counting bodies all that easy.

I'm also angry. Yes, the polls against Bush are mostly turning bad for him, but so many of the American people seem to give him an enormous benefit of the doubt.

Today, I heard that Condi has a 2/3rds majority approval rating with the American public. What? She's been the enabler of every stinking act that has been perpetrated by this administration. A polygraph machine would go into fibrillation with her attached.

Who besides the "Jersey girls" (some of the widows of 9/11) care that this administration has done absolutely everything in its power to be sure we don't have a solid idea of what allowed 9/11 to happen and play out exactly as it did?