Post #3

“What good has it done?”

My Grandma is a surprisingly astute political observer. She can sum up a situation with a phrase or, as in the case of a recent discussion of the Iraq war, a question: “What good has it done?” She then got on a roll:

“Where is the democracy?” Yeah, the Iraqis didn’t follow the script -- greeting us with flowers. Of course, democracy is not always pretty. Just ask President Gore. After all, they elected terrorists in Palestine. Hey, now I see the wisdom in staying the course – George W. Bush doesn’t want a election where he can’t pre-determine the results. :p

“Where is the cheap oil?” To my Grandma on her fixed income, the price of oil really bites. She is already worrying about heating oil for this winter. But lots of people see it as just a minor annoyance and not a reason to change their lifestyle – or their voting habits.

“What good has it done?” Grandma repeats, not even bringing up WMD – or the lack thereof. Well, we “got” Saddam. But didn’t that leave a hole that Al-Qaeda is filling? After all, the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know. But, at least, we are fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here. Of course, “over there” is the hills of Afghanistan. What are we doing in Irag? What good has it done?

Grandma answers herself: “NOTHING!”