Dear Friends,

For those who have had the privelege of my trust in my sharing the details of the past week, I thank you all for the support and assistance that you have given me. As far as personal crises go, the events of the past week have weighed heavily on me, and have yet again proven that, in life, shit comes in waves. While most of the details will remain between private communications, I can share as much: that sometimes, after a period of living without apparent direction, life itself tends to correct the situation.

I have consistently used the term “realigning my bearings” when speaking of the past week’s events. A better metaphor I could not find. The sheer simplicity and elegance of my epiphany was both so exhilirating and frightening that I needed to get off my ass and commit my introspections to action. Action that, definitely, made attention towards my blog less important.

Though the details of my plans regarding my career—my direction—have to remain private, I’d like to tell you all that I am well, and I am back.

If there is one matter of greatest import today, it was Iyad Allawi’s address to Congress, perhaps the most moving address of a foreign leader since this war began, trumping even that of Prime Minister Blair. Of less import, though of greater entertainment value, is John Kerry’s reaction: in an exhibit of total lack of dignity and discretion, John Kerry has continued to exhibit his lack of diplomatic skills. First his campaign insulted the Southern vote by picking on Zell Miller’s accent, and then, his own sister tried to undermine our alliance with Australia, and now, he called Iyad Allawi a liar. Straight from the horse’s mouth, and not only does the top-level Democrat in American politics for the moment not even show a head of state the courtesy of his presence, but all he hears is incessant braying. This is, yet again, another excellent example of how the Left has descended into the depths of most profound intolerance.

It is not cognitive dissonance for the head of state of the very country we liberated, and whose progress is in the interest of both our nation and his, to state the good things that are happening on the ground. Since the media itself, including the fair and balanced Fox News, sees no commercial benefit in telling us where we’re doing good, Iyad Allawi himself has taken on the responsibility of assuading our worries, if but for a while.

There are plenty of questions about why we need to be in Iraq. Both tactical and ethical, these questions have been addressed by the war’s supporters many times. The latest, and one of the best I’ve seen in a while, is that of Gerard Van Der Leun’s. I am a tad more idealistic than he is: for me a Democratic Iraq is not just icing on the cake, it is an integral part of our mission there as a nation. In private ramblings with some news junkie friends, we have concluded that a Democratic Iraq will be, at least in terms of geopolitics, a new Israel: a free country surrounded by those that continue to live in a despotic past. As romanticized as it may seem, a free and secular Iraq serves not just, as pessimists would write, to constantly attract the enemy towards where they can be taken out, but also as an example, one that over time the rest of the Muslim world will learn to adopt, or completely destroy (at which point we pull out all the stops).

However we may argue on the merits, or lack thereof, of the current workings of the Iraq campaign, what we must keep in mind is that it is an issue that is worthy of dignity. The Kerry campaign has consistently exhibited its lack of respect and its total disdain towards all who support this war, not just with the ambiguity with which the Democrat candidate argues his points, but with the condescension that we have come to expect, and loathe, of him. This is perhaps, the only aspect where he is in fact, consistent. I think the level of rhetoric from the Democrat candidate can be better. Then again, at this point, all he can be is better.