From JFK's inaugural address:

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. "

It's both hard to believe, and heartening to know, that those words came from a Democrat.

In the last few months the Democrats have taken a beating (not least, the disastrous November elections which saw the Republicans assume control of the Congress *and* the Senate) and while there are dissenters to the war in both camps, it tends to be Democrats that are most eloquently vocal in their objections, and therefore most visible in the media.

The other thing, though, is that Kennedy came into office in a USA recovering from a world war, a conflict in Korea and had some UN work in-progress in a small southeast Asian country called Vietnam.

The current administration arrived in office in a USA which was economically buoyant, a leading UN player with mutually beneficial relationships with EU nations, had not born the many burdens of war alone since Vietnam, and was engaging in talks to reduce the levels of environmental damage being done by the worlds largest polluters, itself included.

Still, you can't have everything, right...?

========================================================

Today GWB put his request for a $75bn "loan" in to the Congress. This is three times the annual revenue Iraq gets from the sale of its oil, and includes only $3bn in aid, rebuilding and humanitarian relief for Iraq and Afghanistan to share.

However, Jordan and Egypt get a cool $1bn each to help their economies in these troubled times; while Israel gets the same along with $9bn in loans.

While it's commendable, and I mean that sincerely, that the government making the effort to raise the money to make that part of the world a better place for its inhabitants; and is giving *any* consideration to the cost of maintaining what will be a fledgling democracy in a free Iraq, I can't help but feel like the poor, put upon Iraqi in the street is being given a raw deal again.

In Egypt you can expect to live to 66, Israel and Jordan give you 78 and 70 years respectively...in Iraq the life expectancy comes in at 58.
The infant mortality rate in Iraq is 20 times higher than in Israel, 3 times that of Jordan and 2.5 times more than Egypt.

Despite Iraqis dying younger, and dying in infancy at much higher rates, the Population Reference Bureau project that Iraq's population will *treble* in the next fifty years while Israel and Jordan will just about double - Egypt's population won't even increase by that ratio.

For comparison:

UK
Life Expectancy - 78
Infant Mortality - comparable to Israel
Population Growth - Increase of 1/12 of current population in 50 years

USA
Life Expectancy - 77
Infant Mortality - negligibly higher than Israel
Population Growth - Increase of 1/2 of current population in 50 years

So ask yourself this...which nation *really* needs that money?