Ebony's Pearls

>>Afghanistan has gone from a nation where the Taliban harbored al Qaeda and stoned women in the streets to a young democracy that is fighting terror and encouraging girls to go to school.<<

Not outside of Kabul, according my wife's nephew (who is in the army in Afghanistan right now), and a student I know here who is from Afghanistan.

>>Democracy alone is no guarantee for peace. Some of the worst tyrants were elected all fair and square.<<

The Gazans elected Hamas, as one example.

>>We are not a conquering nation and we are not going to re-enact the Crusades of the Middle Ages.<<

And those who do think of the Crusades fondly apparently don't know that just in the First Crusade alone, tens of thousands of Christians and tens of thousands of Jews were murdered by the Crusaders themselves. Epic fail.

>>“America’s air, water, and lands are measurably cleaner.”<<

He seems to have already forgotten about the new rules, or relaxing old rules, he made just a few days ago.

>>“While our nation is safer than it was seven years ago, the gravest threat to our people remains another terrorist attack.”<<

Actually I still think the gravest threat facing us right now is the economy. But the economy is what got Obama elected while the terrorist threat is what originally got Bush re-elected and did so well for McCain.

>>“But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise.”<<

Unless the bad guys are Kurds, who are our allies, even if their separatist group is attacking Turkey; or unless the bad guys are Iranian terrorists who happen to want to overthrow Ahmadinejad.

>>Obama may not be much different. Time will tell on that, and he’s off to a rocky start.<<

I am waiting to see if Republicans complain about Obama using the same presidential powers and tactics that Bush did.