President Bush had a press conference on August 21, 2006.

I read something from it today that I think is very important.

The exchange between the President and a reporter went like this :

President Bush : “You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of "we're going to stir up the hornet's nest" theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.”
Reporter’s Question : “What did Iraq have to do with that?”
President Bush : “What did Iraq have to do with what?”
Reporter’s Question : “The attack on the World Trade Center?”

President Bush responded : “Nothing…”

He then went on in what reads like a fluster about how no one in his administration ever suggested that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack.

He said something else that is cause for concern.

Talking about the recent invasion of Lebanon by Israel he said, “Today, I'm announcing that America will send more aid to support humanitarian and reconstruction work in Lebanon, for a total of more than $230 million.”

He said, “The funds will help the Lebanese people restore key bridges and roads.“

Those ‘key’ bridges and roads were the ones destroyed by the Israelis.

He is proposing $42 million to train and equip Lebanon's armed forces.

At the same he said, “…I'll also work closely with Congress to extend the availability of loan guarantees to help rebuild infrastructure in Israel, infrastructure damaged by Hezbollah's rockets.”

Israel and Lebanon have received billions in American funds already through many different channels. What did they do with that cash? The Israelis spent it on invading another country.

President Bush’s paying off both sides.

He is forgiving these peoples for hating and killing each other even though they do not forgive each other. He does not look like a big man when he does this. He does not make the United States look like a benevolent and wise country - he makes us look the fool.

What is happening here is like paying the murderer and the victim’s family.

It is like giving money to a rapist and the person who has been assaulted.

You can’t buy the world with money.

If you stand for everything you stand for nothing.

What will they do next? The answer is that after years of occupying Iraq no one can predict that.

They are undependable.

There is another issue at hand.

In this post cold war world - the weapons the Israelis were using were American made for the most part.

The weapons fired at them from Lebanon were primarily Russian made.

The United States and Russia should both be held responsible for the murders and deaths their weapons have caused. The makers of these weapons have sold them at a profit to people spending aid money and living in countries that are still living in the past.

These people were killing each other and innocent civilians in full knowledge and cold blood.

There is no excuse.

They should not get any money.

They should be punished.

They have not acted in a civilized manner and they spat at the world in general so that they could slake their thirst for blood.

Today I was talking with an acquaintance and I saw on her computer a picture of a city in Japan. I asked what city it was and she told me Hiroshima.

Hiroshima is where one of the atomic bombs was dropped by the United States on Japan in World War 2.

There was a gate in the water so I asked what that was. I think I might have been changing the subject but I could not escape the answer.

The gate in the water marked the entry way to a Shinto shrine on a sacred island just off the coast of mainland Japan.

I had seen photos of Hiroshima from the other side but never from the water - never from this holy island.

So I considered the enormity that was done and I pictured the fireball rising over the sleeping city and I wondered what the monks living on the holy island must have felt as hell was unleashed before their eyes. I wonder what they felt as they realized that this murder had been done directly before the eyes of God.

Then I considered the murder and rapine in the Middle East. I considered how the most holy Christian places are in Jerusalem and nearly every day the Jews and Moslems living there commit atrocities upon each other within sight of them. Even though they are descended from the same wandering tribes they tear at each other with a fury that is unholy.

Instead of calming this situation and demanding that they stop profaning our most holy places George Bush is giving them money so they can do it again.

The Republican Party has lost its head, its heart and its soul.

During the Civil War the Republicans could have taken money from the British and allowed the United States to slide down into anarchy and finally come to rest like the fat and lazy Canada to the north, but they did not. The Republicans of those days fought tooth and nail for freedom and the right to preserve our nation.

What would have happened if President Lincoln had taken a handout from Britain and stepped aside?

What would have happened if Britain supplied both the North and the South with arms and ammunition?

No sane person would consider a situation like that.

Yet our President has not only proposed it he is acting on it with the help of the Republicans in the House and the Senate.

Whatever happens in the next election is of no long term concern for me but I have an unnerving feeling that these actions are not going unnoticed by the highest power and that the wrath of God will be swift and sure to right these wrongs against humanity.