How could we have possibly have known then what we know now?

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income - to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics. Now let me be clear - I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama Against Going to War with Iraq

One day there will be an honest reckoning.

Affect or effect quiz?

Hey! No looking at my answers before you take the quiz!

Why? you may ask. Because Jazz’s teacher was feeling insecure about whether she had chosen the correct spelling on her report card (she had). I wanted to explain the difference or suggest a litmus test, but I couldn’t. Which made me feel insecure. But now I don’t

Why now? you may also ask. Because I just came across the words trivalent and ditransitive and they reminded me of my conversation with Jazz’s teacher. Hey! Do the quiz before you read my hints! D’oh! Too late!