The human cost of war...

...is not counted in lives lost.

I so agree with Bob who has laid out the true cost of war over at his Links & Rants page.

I was rewatching Band of Brothers, the HBO/Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg production about the experiences of the Airborne Easy Company from D-Day through VE day in 1944-45. One segment shows the troops liberating a town in Holland. While most of the townsfolk are celebrating and welcoming the American soldiers, others are dragging out women who had slept with the Germans and shaving their heads in order to humiliate them. I'm sure many families were faced with shortages and potential starvation under German occupation, and many of these women slept with the Germans in order to get additional rations for their families. War forces people into impossible choices, even worse, in my opinion, than does a simple totalitarian system. To me, that is why anyone who starts a war by choice is probably the worst type of criminal there is. Perhaps George W. Bush should have his head shaved and be forced to walk the streets of Iraq, and face the jeers of those whose lives he has ruined.

He also talks about the latest Bush move in taking wives and children hostage - well, of course, they were just brought in for questioning, and what the hell is wrong with that?

This is the second time this despicable ploy has been reported in operation-whatever-the-hell-it-is in Iraq. No telling how often it is done without being reported.

And these warmongers are sitting down today with their own families in the land of way-more-than-plenty and feeling superior to the "enemy", likely without a thought for what their wars are forcing upon the unfortunate people in between them and their future payoffs. Without a thought even for the poor among their own citizens who will be hungry and perhaps cold today. Because, after all, there's a Salvation Army where they can get a meal if they want one. And if they're not in a city, then there's a local church group who probably collected cans of food and distributed them. And if there's not, then they need to go find a job.

God bless America.

Except for one extraordinarily compassionate conservative - George W. Bush - who is paying a "surprise visit" to Iraq today to be with the troops. It was top secret.

Okay, well, he spent only 2-1/2 hours there.

Without hinting of the enormous surprise to come, Iraq's US civil administrator Paul Bremer told the soldiers he was supposed to read the president's Thanksgiving proclamation to them but would instead defer to the most senior person on the premises.

At that point, Bush emerged wearing a military jacket and loud cheering began.

Do I hear the sound of shutters clicking?

Yeah, I hear you. I'm such a Bush-hater that he couldn't do anything right at this point - he couldn't do anything that would suit me.

The honest answer is, probably not. I've seen too much of him to be taken in. And he truly, truly needs some good PR and new photo ops for the campaign right now.

That's show-biz.

And I bet in that 2-1/2 hours with the troops he saw a lot of progress and "good stuff". Or, er, maybe he heard stories about it. I'm sure we'll hear.