Irony, at a base level

Before our President's State of the Union address, I wanted to enclose a passage from a book I've been reading: The Mouse That Roared.

I say reading--I mean re-reading over again. It was written by a Briton named Leonard Wibberly in 1955. As I am my own sort of bibliophile (i.e. not very much of one), I have a copy that was at one point at time in the private collection of the Spokane (Washington State) Public Library. The last time it was checked out was April 5, 1966.

Begin passage of book:

"The Americans," she said, almost as if musing aloud, "are a strange people. They do not behave like other nations in any way. In fact, in many ways they behave exactly the opposite of most nations.

Where other countries rarely forgive anything, The Americans will forgive everything. Where others rarely forget a wrong, the Americans rarely remember one. Indeed they are so quick to forgive and forget that there is almost a race in their minds which to do first."

End passage.

This goes to show you how quickly we can forget wrongs in this country, for some reason. Perhaps this is because we believe we are somehow always going to come out victors no matter what we do.

But despite the price drop at the pump, we are losing the war in Iraq.

Despite whatever bullshit Bush Jr. tries to pump you full of tomorrow night, we are not on the right path. We should not forgive, nor should we forget.

Ever.