Politics

I continue to be astounded by the damage that partisan politics can do to our country. As Congress has worked for months to get the political football called health care into the end zone, the work of approving the various spending bills that keep the Government working has languished. As has become the norm we are approaching Thanksgiving withoutout having some of the key funding bills in place. It seems to me that the efforts of one party to discredit the other and gain the "upper hand" in the next election comes at the expense of what is good for the country. Unfortunately I don't have a solution. I'm pretty certain that we will not move past our current two party system anytime soon and am not even sure that such a change would be any better.

With the exception of a few military leaders and perhaps a couple of think tanks, there is no real substantive effort to develop a goal and accompanying strategy for Afghanistan...why? Well it's politics silly. You have one group of people who will point to the mistakes of the former administration in believing the "we won" - no effort to decide what the ultimate goal is and perform an analysis of alternatives to determine how to get there. Then there are the new folks in power who seem to be paralyzed by the spector of making a "wrong" decision and damaging their power base, and finally there are those who are so patriotioc that they give little thought to the multiple complex factors that influence what happens. these are for the most part good people with good intentions. And therin lies the problem. The intention. It seems that there is no National intention or purpose. Actions are being carefully crafted to meet multiple intentions:

• Don't mess up


• Leave a positive legacy


• Rattle someones cage


• Appear strong


• Get re-elected


• Get in the press

What is your intention?