I'm getting grumpy.

[Hubris Boy]

Griff, I'm glad you posted this. It was reassuring to see that I'm not the only one. I've had a bad case of the queasies for the last few weeks, and I was startin' to think my naturally paranoid nature was getting the better of me.

The "Office of Homeland Security" scares me to death. I understand the short-term need to have some sort of "czar" coordinating the activities of the various Federal agencies. My concern is that the OHS will become a permanent institution, and what that institution could mutate into. Do we really want the combined resources of the ATF-FBI-NSA-CIA-NRO all rolled into one tidy package? God forbid.

I'm not as worried as you are about our actions in Afghanistan. I think we're on the right track, as long as our goals remain A) the decapitation of Al-Qaeda, and B) the destabilization of the Taliban government. I'm more afraid of "mission creep"... that we'll get drawn into a protracted ground war in the area or, worse, get stuck there in a "peacekeeping" role.

Your #10 made me grin. It's appalling to find yourself in agreement with bin Laden on anything, isn't it? Well... like my old granddaddy used to say: "Even a blind pig finds an acorn now and then."

I agree with you, though, on two out of three:

• Bring the boys (and girls) home from Saudi Arabia (except for the ones who maintain the prepositioned equipment that we stockpile there).
• Pimp-slap the Israelis and TELL them to get their army and their illegal settlements out of the West Bank, and if they don't like it they can say good-bye to a billion dollars a year in direct aid and another billion dollars a year in loan guarantees.

Not sure about Iraq, though I hate half measures. If we're going to bomb them, let's do it. Otherwise, let's go home. A decade of half-heartedly enforcing a stupid "no-fly zone" is long enough.

Whew. I feel better now. Cathartic to get it off your chest now & then, isn't it?