I Don't Mean to Sound Bitter

But I am.

Way back in 2000 I wasn't the biggest Al Gore fan. I thought he was kinda whiny and I really wasn't too keen on Tipper Gore and all her fun with censorship. Back then, Bush had this great spin machine going that made him look charismatic and exciting. They actually convinced people to vote for the guy who wasn't smarter than you. I didn't understand why that made sense to people then and I still don't now.

In anycase, because I am a big government dweeb, I was excited when he was inaugurated -- just as I was excited when Clinton was -- and secretly I couldn't wait to see where W. would take us. Well, about a week into his term, Bush immediately began stripping people of their rights. Or at the very least, made it more difficult for people to exercise those rights. He started introducing faith-based legislation and I cringed, hoping that the checks and balances would take care of it. I was so niave.

After September 11th I took a moment to reconsider Bush. My knee jerk reaction was to blow the hell out of the Middle East, but he took a more measured approach. When I finally calmed down, I respected that. But it wasn't long before he set his eyes on Iraq. And any positive opinion I may have had for him completely disappeared.

George W. Bush says he believes in the sanctity of life. If that is true, how could he send so many to slaughter?

I recognize that this is an argument that we've all had many times and that most of the people who are reading this may not agree with me whole-heartedly, but I've found that lately we all agree more than we disagree.

So rather than beat a dead horse, on the eve of Bush's departure, amid all of the fanfare over our new president, I would like to take a quiet moment to honor the men and women who have given their lives for our country. Would things have worked out differently if Bush hadn't taken the reigns in 2000? We'll never know. But to everyone who has lost someone to our wars, to our disasters, I am truly sorry. I hope that you can find peace.

Here is the latest tally from the Pentagon:

Afghanistan

There have been 1,050 coalition deaths -- 634 Americans, eight Australians, 141 Britons, 107 Canadians, three Czech, 21 Danes, 18 Dutch, three Estonians, one Finn, 23 French, 25 Germans, two Hungarians, 12 Italians, one Latvian, one Lithuanian, three Norwegians, eight Poles, two Portuguese, eight Romanians, one South Korean, 25 Spaniards, two Swedes -- in the war on terror as of January 19, 2009, according to a CNN count. The troops died in support of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom or were part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. At least 2,648 U.S. personnel have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.

Iraq

There have been 4,542 coalition deaths -- 4,226 Americans, two Australians, one Azerbaijani, 178 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, five Georgians, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvians, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of January 19, 2009, according to a CNN count. At least 30,960 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.

Hurricane Katrina

1,836

Total: 7,428

That number keeps me awake at night. What about you, Mr. Bush?