Wages

[poliphilo]

At the end of September the army gave Joe two weeks wages and told him to live on them for a month.

I guess we should have jumped up and down about it but, well, I'm not sure we even considered it. I hate authority, but I'm cowed by it. I guess, that's why I hate it.

And if Joe hadn't been living with us he'd have probably ended up on the streets. Perhaps that was the intention- that he'd get himself in such a fix that he'd go running to his Sergeant Major asking to be taken back.

The Prodigal returns.

But that's history now. He's toughed out the lean times, and now they've paid him what they owe. It makes it possible for him to take a grip on his life. And the first thing he's done is sign up for a course in gym work.

There was an article in the paper a day or two back about how morale in Joe's old regiment is shot to pieces. They got sent to Iraq to fight a war that many of them considered illegal and wound up doing dirty police work in and around Basra, dealing with a populace that mainly didn't want them there. No wonder they're not feeling too good about themselves.

I'm not invoking hellfire, but I'd like to see those who were responsible for getting us into this war punished. Bush and his gang. Blair and his gang. We know they lied; so why are they still there? Like I said, I don't want them to burn, I just want them driven from office- with mockery.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping that Cheyney- and indeed all the Bush gang- will be so damaged by what is happening now- that none of them will be able to run for President.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Except. The other side - none of the parties - have anyone worth running. There has to be an element of charisma. Let's face it, as much as *we* like to say it doesn't make any difference, it is nice if a candidate has a personality. John Kerry's major problem was that he was a cardboard cutout. And I don't think that John Edwards will ever run for president - and win. There are all kinds of jokes about the 'disorganization' of the Democratic party here, but they aren't so funny really. Would Hilary Clinton run for Pres? Maybe, but I don't see the party uniting behind her, and that's what has to happen - the old saying about united we stand is very true.

In my younger days I was mad for Pierre Elliot Trudeau, prime minister of Canada. But these days, Canada has her own problems.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's strange isn't it- a nation of how ever many millions and you can't find anyone fit to lead it.
We have the same problem in Britain. One reason Blair is still in power is that the alternatives are all so uninspiring. The Conservatives- the party of opposition- have had three leaders (all useless) since John Major lost the 97 election to Blair and are currently in the process of electing a fourth.