Some Iraqis may have very well wished for the U.S. to remove Saddam Hussein from power. That has no bearing on the misrepresentation of the intelligence by the Bush administration in order manipulate the country into going to war. It also has no bearing on the bungling ineptitude of the Bush administration in prosecuting that war and the subsequent occupation of Iraq.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

Read Cobra II. It's a very balanced account of the planning and prosecution of the war. Rumsfeld micromanaged the military, and unfortunately for everyone involved he was grossly incompetent.

http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-II...

"Almost 1000 soldiers died!"

What about the Iraqis that just up above you claimed we were trying to save? Over 200,000 dead documented by Iraq Body Count. These deaths are all a result of the invasion of Iraq and the power vacuum which ensued.

https://www.iraqbodycount.org/

"you learn from the mistakes and move on"

The U.S. borrowed the money to pay for the war. The final tab will be in the trillions.

http://www.reuters.com/article...

Tens of thousands of American lives have been shattered, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives have been shattered, millions of Iraqis have had to flee their homes, barbaric ISIS has taken over parts of the region that the Bush administration intentionally weakened. Iran has turned into a major player in the region. The war was a complete, unmitigated strategic disaster.

It doesn't seem very objective to say that Democrats deserve "all the blame", which to me implies that you think the Bush administration is blameless. There's no factual basis for that opinion.

I said the Bush administration is "almost" wholly responsible. They deserve the preponderance of blame. They misrepresented the evidence on alleged WMDs and links to Al Qaeda.

https://news.vice.com/article/...

They executed a sustained propaganda campaign for the purpose of manipulating the country to go to war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...

Also, Rumsfeld has to rank as one of the three worst defense secretaries in American History. Read Cobra II for more information:

http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-II...

The Bush administration was incompetent. They promised that it would be easy to invade Iraq. They said it could be done on the cheap. SecDef Rumsfeld forced the military to deploy less than a quarter of the force which their own planning had determined was necessary for the occupation of Iraq. They expected and planned for no resistance. They expected and planned for all of the existing government structure to remain intact. They disbanded the military, which overnight created a highly armed and trained resistance movement which resulted in the deaths of thousands and debilitating injuries to tens of thousands of American soldiers. They were arrogant and stupid, and we as a country will be paying the price for a very very long time. Trillions of dollars and countless American lives ruined.

On top of that, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives and millions were displaced (fled their homes) by the sectarian conflict which was unleashed by the invasion of Iraq. On top of that, priceless antiquities from the birth of civilization were destroyed in the looting which occurred after the liberation of Baghdad, and subsquently in areas where ISIS has taken over, such as Mosul, due to the power vacuum which resulted directly from the toppling of the Iraqi government.

The invasion of Iraq was unnecessary. It was stupid. It was careless. It was evil. It was the Bush administration's strong desire to invade Iraq. They ginned up the intelligence to make it happen. They are almost wholly responsible for the debacle which ensued.

I agree with you that Democrats and Republicans in Congress should not have authorized the Iraq war. It was a colossal mistake. But, the blame rests squarely with the Bush administration, which manipulated the country into going to war.

Democrats deserve far less blame than the Bush administration, which actually set the war in motion. The Bush administration argued that they needed the authorization to use force in order to have a strong negotiating position with Saddam Hussein. Turned out negotiation was the furthest thing from their minds. The actual invasion of Iraq was ordered by Bush. The Democrats watched from the sidelines, powerless to affect the actions of the executive branch (they had abdicated their power by authorizing the use of force).

I think the point about "serious film and theater" means film and theater which addresses the human condition or speaks truth to power.

The records law was brought into the 21st century after Clinton left the State Department. Also, she turned over all official correspondence.

She may not have violated any laws.

http://thedailybanter.com/2015...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/a...

Thanks! OSM is pretty amazing.

Thanks. The editing tool is pretty sophisticated, so I think I did it right, but if not I'll fix it. :-)

I also added a "no left turn" restriction at the intersection, so that it matches the existing signage, and I modified all of the roads in the gated residential area to be private access roads.

I modified a road in OSM to be one-way, because it is an exit only road from a gated community. Will this change be reflected in the OSM routing?

For the moment, the change is reflected on the map but not in the routing.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...

When we are born, we have no choice what home we are born into, or who our parents are. We may be born into wealth or poverty. We may have parents who treat us with care and tenderness; or we may have parents who don't know how to care for a child, have drug addictions, are incarcerated, are violent, or are mentally unstable. Some children are loved and kissed, while other children are severely neglected, beaten, or abused sexually. This is the lottery we all played. Most of us won. Some children lost.

Abused children are missing a part of their childhood. Where they should have received love, they received brutality or neglect. Because they missed out on a crucial part of their development, they are behind the other children. Children which have to be removed from their parents for their protection can sometimes be placed with family or a close friend. When this is not possible, they enter the foster care system.

In the foster care system, there may be many people involved in the child's life: parents, other family or friends, social workers, attorneys, therapists, doctors, educators, foster parents or group home staff, and hopefully a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) or Guardian ad Litem (GAL).

A CASA is a volunteer who is a constant adult presence in the child's life, which may be lacking other permanency. While social workers, group home staff, therapists, and doctors may work with many children, a CASA is assigned to a single child. The CASA meets with the child at least every other week, takes her out for activities or to eat, learns about her needs and circumstances, and uses this knowledge to advocate for her best interests.

Please consider volunteering as a CASA.

http://www.casaforchildren.org...

"The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog" contains stories about children who went through trauma, and recovered to a degree one would not have thought possible. One of the stories is about the indoctrinated children who were released from Waco, before the structure burned. Another story is about a child which spent about a year (as I recall) caged like an animal. Though disturbing, it's a fascinating look at childhood development and a fresh way of looking at how best to care for traumatized children and help them to be able to heal as much as possible.

"Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential -- and Endangered" is about how empathy is "learned", and why it is so essential.

Both books are by co-authors Dr. Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz. They are highly recommended for anyone working with traumatized children.