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I am almost finished reading Bob Woodward's State of Denial. It has become increasingly clear that many members of the Bush Administration have been incompetent in their handling of the Iraqi War and its aftermath.



One point that is throughout the book so far is that enough troops were not sent over in the first place. Anyone that has been following the whole Iraq debacle has know that former Secretary of Defense, Colin Powell, thought the troop numbers being sent to Iraq was too low in the first place. After reading this book. I now know that people on the ground in Iraq asked for more troops the entire time.



It also seems that the United States has contributed to the majority of insurgents in Iraq. Apparently, the disarming of the Iraqi army was not something everyone recommended. It left thousands of Iraqis out of work with stockpiles of weapons. J. Paul Bremer, the presidental envoy to Iraq, was warned that these same Iraqis would turn against America and the coalition forces.



Another thing that struck me about the whole thing is how members of the Bush administration spent more time arguing amongst themselves instead of coming up with a viable plan of how to handle things after Sadaam Hussein was out of power. It seemed our former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was more concerned with mircomanaging everyone involved with the Iraqi War and making sure the State Department had less say in what happened than the Department of Defense than anything else. It seems to me the various departments of the executive branch refused to cooperate with each other. Condi Rice became frustrated with Rumsfeld. He was so intent of keeping her and the entire National Security Council out of the loop when it came to operational matters in Iraq that he caused more damage than good.



If Woodward is correct, our president has not been served well by those around him. They seemed to keep the worst of the news about Iraq from him and told him things he wanted to hear. Rumsfeld had an iron grip on what information Bush received. Rumsfeld wanted everyone involved to report to him. Then he told the president what he wanted to. It makes me wonder if Rumsfeld was confused about who was Commander- in- Chief.

A friend of mine got into a little discussion earlier in the week. She made the statement that it is better for people to have two good parents. While I agree with that statement, I am a big proponet of personal choice being the main thing that determines how someone's life ends up.



I know and have known too many people that blame their past for how they are living their lives now. They seem to blame their parents, their childhood, whatever seems to be the easiest copout. I understand that some people have suffered severe trauma in their lives. I know some people who have gone through hell. These same people made the choice to be be good, productive members of society. They made a decision to be better parents then the ones they had. They decided to make good choices that would have a postitive impact on their life. They did not spend all their time whining about how bad their childhood was and that was the reason they could not have a happy, productive life.



If a person makes poor choices, their life will reflect that. If a person make good choices, then their life will reflect that as well. Using the excuse that you had a bad childhood does not cut it with me.

I was reading a members article that dealt with the topic of love. Then I got to thinking about people who do not love themselves. I have a hard time believing someone can hate themselves and truly love another person. I have had people think I am one with a huge ego, because I do not hate myself. I always laugh at them to myself. I do not think I am the greatest thing that ever walked, but I refuse to see myself in only a negative light. How can I see the positive qualities in others if all I see is the negative in myself? I do not think that is possible. Everyone has negative traits. Some people are better at hiding theirs, but they are there.



I think it is people with low self-esteem who look to others for a sense of self-validation. I know a girl named Heather. I think it would be foolish of her to look at the person she is currently living with for a sense of self -validation. The person she currently stays with is great for putting people down and trying to make them think they are nothing. The thing is this person thinks she is nothing as well. Only those with low self-esteem have the need to ridicule everyone else for every little thing they do or say. If I cannot find something to like about a person, then I feel it is hightime to get away from them. They do not need me around them putting them down every five minutes.



Loving y ourself does not make your ego bigger than the rest of the planet's ego. It just means you will not tolerate abuse from others and will probably not go out of your way to hurt other people.