Kerry can't afford to pick someone whom Colin Powell could destroy with a few pithy sentences.

What is with all the speculation that Kerry would select a Republican (McCain, Zinni) as a veep? He'll pick a Democrat. This is all stupid games playing by reporters.

"Even John Kerry isn't stupid enough to pick a guy [4 star Gen. Anthony Zinni] who says the Iraq War was fought fore Israel's sake..."

It is about time Americans had a chance to vote for the right reasons. To do that, they do not need people in office who avoid or twist the evidence to suit themselves. Americans need to be exposed to all credible opinions. They need arm-sleeve candidates with absolutely serious convictions based on experience, facts and logical thought. Yes, candidates must be willing to put their neck on the block and they need to loose their neck when their assertions prove to be personal and private assumptions rather than publicly verifiable facts.

Evidence, and the opinions based on that evidence -- concerning this Iraq war -- do not slander Israel or anyone else. Those facts just give the other side of the story. That story is that without the Christian far-right and their support for Bush and his (their) Israel agenda, he does not have a chance to win this election. (And I am not slandering the Christian far-right by saying that.) It is time to call a spade what it is and let the chips fall! Zinni does that. The Iraq war was about Israel as much as anything else. That war would not have happened but for the opinion of the Christian far-right, that all the land in Palestine belongs to Israel. Their view is based entirely on their private interpretation of Bible prophecy. Because their view is held by a substantial number of Bush supporters, he deems it necessary to give them what they want, a war against the Arabs beginning with Iraq. No other motive for this war has proven to be of any consequence, except America's need for Arab oil, or at least control of the oil in that part of the world.

The probability that the war in Iraq was engaged in as a favor to both Israel and the Christian far-right is very great, and my point here is that we do not have to deny that connection in order to prove our love or support for Israel as people or a nation. Honestly, love for Israel or anyone else is not love if it is pretended because of someone's unproven and unprovable view of New Testament prophecy. Acceptance has to be based on more than unverifiable hypothesis. Acceptance grows with trust and trust is had when people keep their word with each other.

Israel's need for land and big Oil's desire for Arab oil are the initial motives for the war. Without them, there would have been no war. Period! We would have continued to try to find Osama Ben Lauden, whom all believed was responsible for 9/11.

No other verifiable causes have ever been given for the Iraq war. Other motives have been conveniently provided along the way as justification after the fact -- mere excuses -- but none of those were first causes. Iraqs WMD was a false motive from the beginning. It proved to be nothing but a red herring, based on illusion and delusion. The CIA intelligence was there to show just how thin the cheese had been sliced but the delusion prevented that intelligence from being believed. So we cannot blame the CIA. Dumping the blame on CIA Director George Tenet only compounded the lie. The WMD motive for this war was literally cooked up by the neocons in the Pentagon and White House, corroborated by more lies from a bunch of Iraq defectors with their own personal interests, and then sold to gullible, frightened, authoritarian-minded Americans by V.P. Cheney. Then that lie was perpetuated by Mr. Bush. Tenet's guilt in the matter lies in the fact that he, under pressure from the White House, helped cover up the lie. Since the evidence shows he knew the WMD "proof" was shaky at best, he deserves to go, but not as a scapegoat for that whole pack of liars! All the rest of the people who kept on telling that lie to Americans (and some still do) deserve to be ousted.

There are several sides to the Iraq story and Zinni tells one or more of them. Perhaps it is not good politicking to pick him as a candidate for V.P., but he does face up to the truth and everyone in Washington realizes that or is beginning to realize it. In the long run, the probability is that Zinni would be much less prejudiced for the special interests I have mentioned than the people already in the White House.

Wars should never be fought -- like this one was -- for special interests. Zinni knows that. In addition, his experience in wars is real, blood and guts fighting, unlike that of the birds now perching at the top of the Washington tree. Almost all of them are armchair quarterbacks on this war who have little or no experience in anything but political deception and/or oil. Zinni is a real American hero while they are but salesmen for various powerful, private causes.

His experience gives us the advantage if we ever do have to fight a real war. He knows enough to be cautious, yet he knows when and how to fight when necessary. That makes him the best candidate in any time of war, including a war on terror -- if there really is such a monster. The only thing Zinni has to prove is that he would not let the military itself be his special interest group. If he can be transparent about that, he will be a viable candidate. Understanding what the military needs, rather than what it wants -- and being able to say, "No!" when necessary -- could easily be to America's advantage in the long run.

Clear thinking is what the whole world needs right now. That includes Israel. When we fight for the right reasons, and choose the appropriate weapons for the occasion, everyone benefits. Sometimes that means hard-nose negotiation. America does not need any more wind-mill fighting or golden-fleece chasing. That kind of action only polarizes Americans and destroys democracy. It forces even normally level headed people out to the nit-wit fringes. Sensible policies based on hard evidence is what we can all live with and those will bring us together and build America up. That, rather than throwing our weight around, is what will be good in the long run, not only for us but also for the whole world.

Matt:

We have a far-Right Christian president. Isn't it likely he fought the war for his own sake?

Go ahead JFK make my day.