Last Saturday was the open tryout and draft for Detroit Men's Senior League Baseball. I was a mid-first round draft choice. Well, actually, we were all first round draft choices, but I was 7 out of 13 and I'll take that gladly. I was selected by the A's. The team has a number of guys I played with three years ago, the Royals, so I guess I had an in.
So far, I ache like hell, and we don't play a game for at least a month. I twisted my right ankle shagging flies at the tryout and my back is killing me from the batting cage. But the worst of it is my throwing. I don't really expect to hit much, or to be a defensive wiz, but I'm having real difficulty just tossing around the pill. I've taken time away from the game before, but have never struggled with this. It's pretty disappointing.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
over. and out.
Republicans are up in arms because Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) says the war is lost. Can't anybody get this straight? Yes, Reid is wrong, but so are Republicans. So, for the record, here's the answer:
We won the war four years ago. It's the nation-building we lost.
War is the exertion of political will of one government upon another. U.S. Armed Forces performed with skill, precision and heroism. Credit where credit is due: Rummy and company won the war in 2003.
It was President's high-minded optimism — and total disregard for history — that got us into this mess. Consider what a democratically-based Iraqi government needs to overcome: Sunnis and Shiites have been at each other since nearly the very beginning of Islam; citizens with no practical understanding of open and free government; almost no independent institutions binding the country; meddlesome neighbors — Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Al Qayda — looking to expand influence; those Kurds waiting to raise their own flag.
Granted, creating a more stable and secure Iraq would have helped matters at the outset of occupation, but can we truly expect the U.S. Army to mediate all that even under the best of circumstances?
If stability is victory in Iraq, we could have it relatively swiftly — we find another Saddam, equip and fund him, then look the other way. Not that I'm advocating that. A thug, even if he's our thug, is still a thug. What we need to do is accept the fact that Iraq is going to be a mess for a long, long time and that it will be up to Iraqis to figure it out from here.
Sorry, Secretary Powell, but the Pottery Barn rule is dead. We broke, but someone else is going to pay for it.
We won the war four years ago. It's the nation-building we lost.
War is the exertion of political will of one government upon another. U.S. Armed Forces performed with skill, precision and heroism. Credit where credit is due: Rummy and company won the war in 2003.
It was President's high-minded optimism — and total disregard for history — that got us into this mess. Consider what a democratically-based Iraqi government needs to overcome: Sunnis and Shiites have been at each other since nearly the very beginning of Islam; citizens with no practical understanding of open and free government; almost no independent institutions binding the country; meddlesome neighbors — Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Al Qayda — looking to expand influence; those Kurds waiting to raise their own flag.
Granted, creating a more stable and secure Iraq would have helped matters at the outset of occupation, but can we truly expect the U.S. Army to mediate all that even under the best of circumstances?
If stability is victory in Iraq, we could have it relatively swiftly — we find another Saddam, equip and fund him, then look the other way. Not that I'm advocating that. A thug, even if he's our thug, is still a thug. What we need to do is accept the fact that Iraq is going to be a mess for a long, long time and that it will be up to Iraqis to figure it out from here.
Sorry, Secretary Powell, but the Pottery Barn rule is dead. We broke, but someone else is going to pay for it.
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