Civilian war
During the Korean War, General MacArthur wanted to cut the North Korean supply lines and reinforcements coming from Red China by bombing the bridges. The civilians didn’t want to bring China into the conflict (even though troops were already involved) and told him no. When the General went ballistic, they grudgingly gave him permission to bomb the North Korean half of the bridges. Today, the civilian authority in Iraq needs to drop the leash on our military forces and allow them to win. If our troops are shot at from a mosque, then that mosque should become a crater. DBJ

Nick’s lesson
Here’s where we all need to pay attention. When the terrorists were beheading Nick Berg, they were yelling ‘Allah Akbar’ - God is Great. We are in a war with fanatics. They would like to do the same thing to as many of us as possible. America cannot back down and we cannot give in. The stakes are too high. Jordanian security officials broke up a plan by Al-Qaeda terrorists a couple of weeks ago. They were planning to kill 80,000 people by detonating chemical weapons in the capital city of Ahman. We need to understand that they would dearly love to do that here. Only by going on the offensive, taking the fight to them, can we hope to prevent such a catastrophe here. DBJ

Taxes by any other name…
Call them fees, pass the responsibility off to local boards, disguise them in any way you’d like, but still, no matter how you sugar coat it, more money coming out of the average man’s income feels like a tax. The higher prices we’re currently having to pay for gas at the pump will easily erode most, if not all of the Bush tax cuts. The higher local taxes we will surely see to support education cannot be avoided. So when politicians wax poetic about “no new taxes” that promise is looking pretty empty to a lot of consumers. The answer? Perhaps plain speaking and real, honest action to let folks know up front exactly what our government intends to do. It would take some political courage to legislate in such an uncommon way, but don’t we want courageous men and women in public office? And if the state keeps making progress, do you really think the voters who have had to pay and extra nine cents a pack for cigarettes will vote against their representatives for that small amount? At least such an approach will feel more honest and allow the voters to more fairly accord credit or blame as the case may be when the next round of empty promises are being made. DBJ