Like a rocket’s being lobbed across the bow of our Ship of State, comes a warning  that our insane escalation of the war of expediency in Iraq carries an ever-escalating price tag of blood, suffering and death, which threatens the stability of this fragile vessel of ours, despite its impregnable appearance before the world.

Day by day, I find myself comparing our Commander-in-chief, President Bush, with Herman Wouk’s fictional character, Lieutenant Commander Philip Queeg, the tyrannical, paranoid skipper of the Caine, who saw himself as the lonely, righteous defender of all that was good, against the entire crew.

In his address to the nation, January 9, the President stated, “The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people – and it is unacceptable to me.”  Then, he went on to say that any errors made in the execution of the war thus far have been made by him. He should have stopped there, but he bungee-jumped over the heads of the electorate, who had given him a whopping vote of no-confidence in November, by declaring he will be sending 21,500 more troops into harm’s way.

Mike Dorning and Aamer Madhani, on p. 1 of the Chicago Triibune, reported that analysts questioned whether the troop levels would be high enough, and whether the Iraqi government would be strong enough to accomplish such a daunting mission.

They said that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) noted that when Zalmay Khalizad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, testified before the committee last July, he said the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had six months to bring the sectarian violence under control or the fledgling nation would fall into an intractable crisis.

Obama questioned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: “Six months have passed.  The sectarian violence has worsened. What leverage do we have that would provide us some assurance that six months from now, you will not be sitting before us again saying, ‘Well, it didn’t work’?”

Rice responded that the Iraqi government would need to meet certain standards, such as being even-handed in defending its population.

“Or else what?” Obama pressed on.

“Or this plan isn’t going to work,” replied Rice.

And, thus we go on, we American people, caught in a quagmire not of our own making, but the future is our responsibility. Now is the moment to watch out for the strawberries on this modern Queeg’s watch, for it may be our last chance to take control of our listing Ship of State.

Lest we become discouraged, I offer an editorial about the U.S.A. from a Romanian newspaper, written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title “C”ntarea Americii, meaning “Ode to America” in the Romanian newspaper “Evenimentulzilei” (...translated as “The Daily Event” or  “News of the Day”)

An Ode to America

Why are Americans so united?

They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color!  They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.  Still the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart.

Nobody rushed to accuse the white House, the army, or the secret service that they are only a bunch of losers.  Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts.  Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about.

Instead the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.

After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag.

They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing.

On every occasion, they started singing: “God Bless America!”  I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one-hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.

How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being?  Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes.

And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy.

What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way?

Their land?  Their history?  Their economic Power?  Money?

I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding common place, I thought things over, I reached but only one conclusion...Only freedom can work such miracles.

Cornel Nistorescu

God bless you, Cornel Nistorescu, for reminding us that we are better than we appear in our own eyes this day. Amen.

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