WELCOME TO THE PRESIDENTIAL COLLESIUM

It took the evangelical Christian president George Bush to do what no ruler, group or nation could do for over 2,000 years – essentially destroy the Christian community of Iraq.

CBS News 60 Minutes profiled the plight the one million member Iraqi Christian faithful who have lost all their churches and over 90% of their number to the Iraq war visited upon them by the Bush administration. Those left, mostly women and children are too old, young, poor or ill to flee.

Bush’s invasion unleashed a civil war between Iraq’s Muslim sects, with Christians a small and tempting target for all sides. Ironically, under Saddam Hussein, Christians were free to worship, build churches and live peacefully among the great majority of Muslims. Saddam’s foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, was a Christian. The Christian slaughter and exodus is a heretofore little known tragedy of a war filled with tragedies. The UN believes over four million Iraqis of all faiths have fled the carnage unleashed without provocation by our president.

Folks who believe in God say He works in mysterious ways. There is nothing mysterious about President Bush and his war party. They are simply liars, thugs, and ultimately, war criminals.

Originally published in Glen Ellyn Sun, December 21, 2007

THE STATE LEGISLATOR AND THE LADY

My lasting memory of the revered Henry Hyde is the photo of the dashing member of the state legislature posing with his married mistress in the 1960s, the revelation of which exposed the rank hypocrisy of the Clinton impeachment charade. At the time of his infidelity Hyde was just a tad younger than Clinton during the president's straying. When called on for his obvious hypocrisy in leading the frivolous removal of Clinton for essentially an overblown sex scandal, Hyde dismissed his actions as a youthful indiscretion.

Sadly, Hyde ended his 16-term congressional career as a shameless cheerleader for our disastrous Iraq war.

Originally published in Daily Herald, December 18, 2007