Crossed Swords

OKAY BOWL
I won't write much about the Super Bowl because I have a newspaper article to write about but in general the Super Bowl commercials were good, and the game was pretty exciting. I reserve my pointed comments for (2) things. Having the "Glee" girl sing "America the Beautiful" was shamless promotion since the show "Glee" followed the Super Bowl (at least in the Midwest and East). So if "Two Men" were on right after the game we'd have seen Charlie Sheen boozing it up with 2 hookers? Did we need both "America the Beautiful" and then immediately after that the "Star Spangled Banner"? No, it was shamefacedly hucksterism. "STep right up and win a doll for your girl, 3 tosses for a dollar"!

Speaking of that Crhistina Aguilara's "National Anthem" was awful. Not only did she forget the fourth line and improvise by doing the second line again but her way of doing the song was way off. Don't singers understand the song is the thing. Most all of them do it like they are auditioning for American Idol, like it's about them. And do you have to scream yeah after every line as in:

what so proudly we hail, yeaaaaah,
at the twilights last gleaming, yeahhhh, ahhhh, ahhhhh
gave proof through the night, yeah,yeahhhhhahhhhh

Stop already with the Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, I've got gall stones screeching.
In short Christine Aguilar's version was as painful to sit through as it would have been watching a man wrestle a mongoose.

Now to my main (and serious) topic.
Did you see in the Union Tribune (although the picture came from the New York Times) today on page A4 the story about the monument that Iraq is going to repair? It's a huge pair of hands holding a sword in each hand. The swords are crossed. It's called the Victory Arch. Why is this significant? Because it was Saddam Hussein's personal monument. The hands are his and the swords are his!!!! The man they all wanted out is suddenly popular enough in Iraq to rebuild HIS monument, the one that was openly a statement of his power and control.

All that we have done for Iraq and they thank us by restoring the dictator's monument and memory! I'm sure all the parents of slain American soldiers will be outraged as well they should be. It's like after we defeated Germany in WWII; 3 years later the Germans put the swastika back on the government building.

I knew it, I've seen this before. When we left South Vietnam, the North immediately came down took over, and life went on. It's was as though the 10 years, countless millions of dollars and thousands of american dead was for nothing. This is a repeat.
When will they get it through their thick military skulls, that these countries at first want our help but they don't give a crap about America, American ideas or values. After they get our help they tell us to get the hell out and pave the way for a new dictator.

The day our last troop leaves, some new Hussein will be ready to take over and the "Victory Arch" will be in place and good to go. Pisses me off!