birth abnormalities

While reading the Pravda yasterday, I came across a story of a little girl born in India. She was born a cyclops. Thinking it may have been a fake I looked up the problem. It seems that one in every million children is born with this condition. I also found that there are other odd birth problems. There was a girl born with no face, one born with no mouth, etc...

My heart goes out to any family that has a child born with any type of birth defect.

Another Lost War

While reading the WSJ last wek, the main headline caught my eye. "Taliban Winning". The whole point of the article was a fact of the losses by coalition troops. Why is this catching my eye? Simple. For years, the Bush admin. was conducting its military operations in Iraq over faulty intel. There were no WMD, Saddam was not a real threat, and the only reason that we went there, not to overthrow an ELECTED government, but to take the pipeline of crude. I bring this up for this one reason.
The attacks on US soil in 2001 was based in Afghanistan, carried out by terrorists that we trained in Afghanistan to drive out the Russians, backed by the Taliban regime that we helped instal into power. Because of the decision to place an over the top amount of man, money , and machine assets in Iraq, the coverage in the media, as well as the congress, for the Iraqi occupation overpowered the war we should have been fighting with all of America's power and might.
Because of this sought after revenge in Iraq, we are now facing record losses in Afghanistan. The taliban and its supportes are overwhelming our troops to the point, that the supreme commander in the field of operations is calling for more troops, as well as repositioniong the troops that are in country to better protect the civilian population. Khandahar has become a walk through hell for the troops. The soldier reposition will reflect the need for larger and more specialized troop placement.
Will we win this war? Personally, I don't think so. President Karzi is already requesting that the US loosen its control in the area, allow the local troops and police do a greater part of the work, and has wondered allowed about the timetable for withdrawl.
Why then have we allowed the former admin to place our troops in a position and place we didn't need to be, while we had an actual war to support?
Time will tell if Obama will try to win the war, but with his recent decision to enforce some of the Bush policies and deny transparency, which he said would be a hallmark of his admin, I truly wonder.