BURNING QUESTION?

CAN YOU IGNORE THE IRAQ WAR OR DOES IT INTRUDE ON YOUR DAILY LIFE?--The question asked by the Seattle Post Intelligencer Op/Ed page invites the following comments--

Beyond the most obvious lethal disruption to the immediate lives of our soldiers and their families the ongoing Iraq War intrudes on most all of daily life in America even when the general public chooses to remain oblivious-- As official policy no footage of flag-draped caskets allowed on the evening news and thus the heroic supreme sacrifice of so many of our economically disadvantaged volunteer soldiers is not allowed to interfere with our main national ethos-- Shopping!!-- The shallow happyface mentality brooks no confrontation with the reality of war-- Like Memorial Day even the Fourth Of July has become first and foremost another long commercial weekend consumer blowout-- Just put the party on the tab of our children's future-- Like, hey, we got credit, man,....huh what's Independence, duuuuude??--

We cannot and must not face the fact that our once proud Independence has become an illusion-True, the hurricanes Katrina and Rita added serious impact but subtract persistently the million barrels per day of pre-war Iraqi oil from world oil production and it is not difficult to find the main initial impetus for escalating gasoline and heating oil prices now affecting nearly every aspect of our destabilized oil-based economy-- Retail sales are down and the effect of increasing gas prices have added such a cost to our daily commute that home foreclosure threatens many individuals if not by tangent the entire highly leveraged housing and banking industry-- Most of the media has aided and abetted the ignorance that fails to make such problematic connections to the decision to invade Iraq-- Many Americans even those highly educated can't find Iraq on a map much less explain the difference between Sunni, Shiite and Kurd and many more than those yearning for theme park reality to return simply wish the war would just go away --SHOULD we be allowed to ignore the war??-- Every so often Life forces us to sit down and feast on a banquet of consequences whether we like it or not-- This time it won't be any prettier than the last--