Lingering Thoughts

CBS Evening News with Katie Couric reported tonight that a major coastal storm is hovering over Virginia instead of moving north.

Could it be that God is punishing Virginia for voting in a Republican governor last week? Hey, if fundamentalists can invoke God for their causes, why couldn’t He/She be seen as the cause of disproportionate rain in Virginia when He/She’s not happy with the way humans behave? It wouldn’t be the first time God used a little, okay, a lot, of rain to express displeasure with mankind.

If I lived in New Jersey, to the north of Virginia, I’d seriously be looking into gopher wood stockpiles...

The lingering storm is not the only contributor to GOP angst. Republicans, and even some Democrats, are all over President Obama for taking too long to decide on a new Afghanistan policy. You’d think our political leaders and pundits would have a sense of history.

Do they not recall that 45 years ago Congress rushed to judgment after two U.S. destroyers allegedly were attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin. Less than a week after the alleged incidents, our elected representatives on August 7, 1964, green-lighted the Vietnam War by passing, almost unanimously, the Southeast Asia Resolution, aka the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, granting the president the authority to use military force without having to secure a declaration of war. It is now generally agreed that no such attacks took place.

Many, including myself, have warned that Afghanistan bears too many similarities to the Vietnam debacle. Why would anyone begrudge Obama the time needed to form a valued judgment? Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling to the Taliban or Al Qaeda. Caution, not cowboy diplomacy, is required. Cut the president some slack, and hope, pray, that he reaches a decision that will not burden our country for decades or fill our military cemeteries with the prime of our nation.