Thoughts on the Current Situation and Selected Issues

In case you're wondering where I stand about certain issues, I'd like to make my thinking clear:

• Israel is certainly right to view Hezbollah as its enemy, and it is right to strike back in retaliation for attacks on northern Israel and the kidnapping of several of its soldiers. However, the manner of the retaliation is disproportionate to the offense and risks triggering an all-out war in the Middle East. Iran has been aiding Hezbollah, the organization that murdered 241 American Marines in 1983. The U.S. is certainly right to consider Hezbollah the enemy. However, our government must act to restrain Israel before things get out of hand.
• Iran must be contained and deterred, not physically attacked. I am especially worried about an Israeli strike on Iran because of the Hezbollah drone that damaged an Israeli warship.
• Iraq may have to be broken into three pieces, including an independent Kurdistan--which Turkey would vehemently oppose. There seems little doubt that a civil war is raging and that Baghdad is rapidly getting out of control. This is 100% attributable to the incredible incompetence of the Bush regime, which failed to anticipate what would happen in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion. It is in no way the fault of the war's critics, who were right all along.
• The Marines accused of raping an Iraqi woman and murdering her and her family in order to cover up the crime deserve the presumption of innocence. But if convicted after due process, they deserve the most severe penalty military justice can provide. In postwar Japan Douglas MacArthur issued strict orders that no civilian was to be assaulted. Our men in Iraq must be held to the same standard.
• Stem cell research deserves our full support. The opposition to it, based on misguided religious sentiment, must be defeated. It is our moral obligation to press on with this research. Go, Nancy Reagan!
• I predict oil will reach $100 a barrel before the end of 2006. Gasoline will average $4.00 a gallon plus. Will Americans finally get serious about alternative fuel? By the way, it makes more sense to use sugar than corn in making fuel. My nephew Stewart (aged 44) has convinced me of that. (He's studied this extensively).
• Global warming is real. Although a naturally occurring phenomenon in earth's multi-billion year geological history, this current warm period is being exacerbated by human activity. There can no longer be any doubt of it. Al Gore is right, just as he was right about the war and so many other issues.
• Kim Jong-il's death would be an immensely welcome event.
• I am truly beginning to question the mental stability of George W. Bush, and I do not make such a statement casually.

There you have it.