Fire and Brimstone Upon Them

There is nothing I can say about the Iraq war that hasn't already been said more eloquently elsewhere, by the victims and the eyewitnesses on the ground.  In my case, it represented the point in time that I gave up on human nature for good.  It was the ultimate triumph of the crushing know-nothingness of my country: for me, the most depressing thing of all. It was the mind-numbing banality of the U.S.'s own particular axis of evil (Cheney-Bush-Rumsfeld-Powell).

My inexpressible outrage that morphed into sheer impotent rage has since dwindled to the gut-wrenching certainty that none of them will ever be held responsible.  I intend to continue to hold fast to my vow of ten years ago to never again knowingly pay another penny into the U.S. war machine.  But really, who gives a damn about my simple-minded pacifist principles when so many people's lives have been destroyed?

On a more upscale note, we have a new Pope.  God be praised.