We were considering a trip to visit friends and relatives in Cleveland, southeast Pennsylvania, the Washington DC area, and Arkansas, with stops at a few other places of interest in the South.
After reading Frank Rich's column on the Al Qaeda threat of a nuclear attack (New York Times, February 25, 2007), we have reconsidered our decision. We don't want to be anywhere near New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, or New Orleans, all potential targets because commerce, government, or shipping.
We, as a nation, have gotten ourselves into this mess because we elect politicians more on personality than substance, because we fall into the trap of wanting to be "strong on defense", and because we totally ignore diplomacy. How could diplomacy stop Al Qaeda? It won't directly, but it sure would garner us more allies and their resources to find and capture criminals like Al Qaeda.
Bush completely blew the struggle against the likes of Al Qaeda with his misdirected war in Iraq which increased the size of "The Enemy" without a commensurate increase in the size of "Our Allies".
Is there anything in Bush's malfeasance that is a high crime or misdemeanor that would be grounds for impeachment? We can't replace him with Cheney either. That leaves Nancy Pelosi, but I don't have any confidence in politicians who practice partisan politics rather than governance and statecraft.
