Tough Buns

Just a wee bit of Sunday bloggery between friends, Bush. First to say how much I admire the courage of those Iraqis who made it to the voting booth, despite mortal threats. I trust the outcome will be as we all would want it: a greater independence from the United States.

Also this: I wish people would stop saying things like "the world changed on 9/11"--as did at least two letter-writers in today's New York Times. The world didn't change on 9/11. People in other countries have had painful, first-hand knowledge about the slaughter of innocent victims on their soil for countless years. What changed was America's perception of the world. We lost that blinkered, disingenuous belief that we're sheltered from that weird old world out there, that we can somehow do no wrong. Well, many of us did. It's a shift in consciousness that may be uncomfortable, but brings us a little bit closer to reality: there are actually people out there who don't share our concept of happiness and freedom, or our way of realizing it--let alone our way of imposing it on others. Hard though it may be for us Americans to believe, there are even people out there who don't like us.

That's what we learned, to our infinite shock: we're not protected. That what we say and do in the world has sometimes unknowable ramifications. That we're exposed to the very same dangers as the rest of the world. If we don't like it, well, tough buns, as an old friend of mine used to say. And welcome to reality.