all Washington getting friendly with the boss

Ted Rall saw only part of the story when he described the shoddy construction of our bases in Iraq, with its fatal consequences for our military personnel. In a cartoon dated 4/14 he wrote: "No one is that inept. Haliburton is obviously working for Al Qaeda."

I would go much further than Rall, altering that statement to read:

No one is that inept. Our entire government, the White House, Congress, even the Supreme Court, is obviously working for Al Qaeda.

The White House and Congress, by the leave of the Supreme Court, have together killed a million civilians and made refugees of five million more. Washington, with our approval, has laid waste the wealth, infrastructure and institutions of an ancient people and handed over those who survived to terrorists who had never before had access to their lands. It has bankrupted us all, as well as our children and our children's children. It has blown through the accumulated capital of the world's respect for our nation. It has totally distracted us from national and international problems which really have to be addressed. It has destroyed our liberties. It has mounted and maintained the most successful worldwide Islamic terrorist recruiting campaign ever imaginable. It has shut our doors to the contributions of both friends and strangers, and darkness has spread across a land and a people once spirited and open.

These are incredible accomplishments of which Al Qaeda could not have dreamed in a hundred years had our government not decided to cooperate with its agenda - and free of charge, it would appear.

They tell us the war is going to go on for a hundred years. I suppose we no longer need to ask why they haven't found Osama.

[image of a 16th-century woodcut illustrating the medieval christian fantasy, the "Witch's Kiss", from About.com]