Since I starting blogging a couple of months ago, I find myself
waking up in the middle of the night with something inside me screaming
to be said. Tonight it is cynical ambition. What I mean by that is the
kind of “Do anything for power — or money, or sex, or fame”. You can
fill in the ‘it’ that people will do anything to have.

I
have spent most of my life trying to be positive, to stand for
something, to leave the world a bit better than I found it. Sometimes I
have succeeded and sometimes I have not. The last six years have been
difficult as I have witnessed the neo-conservative power grab and found
myself deeply disagreeing with most of the policies of George W. and
his cronies. Nonetheless, I’ve at least felt he was sincere, even if
misguided, and I respected his convictions, even if I disagreed with
most of them. Instead of ‘Bush-Bashing’, I have tried (not always
successfully) to focus on the problem of national divisiveness that at
times seems to be tearing us apart.

Even in my own family, I can see where we now avoid political
dialogue rather than become embroiled in an emotional quagmire—Fox
versus the BBC as news sources and multigenerational divides from World
War II to Vietnam and 9/11. Just like football hooligans fighting out
of frustration that they are losing or are afraid of losing a game over
which they have no control, we’ve become spectators in our own lives.

Tonight’s tossing has been precipitated by the recent ‘shift’ in the
Republican/White House “game plan” from “stay the course in Iraq” to
“flexibility and dynamic tactics”. Like my friend Curmudgeon,
I can only stand so much bullshit before I want to scream. We’re
talking God knows how many billions of dollars, thousands of American
lives, questionable motives for going to war in the first place, more
than a half million civilian casualties, almost universal loss of
respect globally, and a debt our children will be paying off for the
rest of this century— and now these bastards have the gall to ‘shift
the strategy’ two weeks before the election and speak of an exit
strategy as if it is their idea!

What cynicism. What shallow contempt for those who have supported their cause.

I hope there is a judgment day.

I trust the cynics will pay the price for their ambition.