When it comes to corroding people's faith in their leadership, nothing is more effective than rampant corruption.

Since our ostensible goal in Afghanistan is to establish a stable, peaceful government, it makes sense that stamping out corruption would be in our best interests. When it's so pervasive, though, where does one even begin?

There are fabulous amounts of money washing around in a place that has only known poverty for centuries. It's not that the Afghans are any more corrupt than anyone else. If the opportunity exists, and there's no oversight to speak of, any typical person will take whatever he can.

Singapore, I read somewhere, has one of the cleanest governments in the world. As I recall, it's because the prime minister, who is in effect a dictator, decreed that the penalty for corruption by a government official is death.

Singapore also has closed-circuit cameras to catch people spitting in elevators, as well as sirens and flashers on vehicles that activate if their drivers exceed the speed limit, so one can go overboard in maintaining public order.

Probably the best--and only--way to cure the problem of government corruption in Afghanistan is for us to pack up our loot and go home. In a matter of weeks, there wouldn't be any government left to corrupt.

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The hypocrisy is delicious.

The same conservatives who passionately promote the sacredness of the constitution--and appointing judges to the federal bench who would interpret it strictly--are now in favor of suspending it out of fear that our constitutional guarantees are nothing but Swiss cheese through which terrorist vermin might escape justice.

You can't have it both ways. Either it is the noblest document ever written, or its freedoms should only be applied to lesser crimes in which the outcome isn't so serious. It saddens me that its vocal supporters have so little faith in its effectiveness.

As for the argument that terrorists make war on America, and therefore have no right to be tried under our system of presuming innocence until proven guilty: I don't recall anybody saying that Timothy McVeigh should be denied a trial by jury. He made war on America the same as these guys--just ask the loved ones of those unlucky enough to be in the Murrah Federal Building that day.

By the way, he was convicted and executed under our supposedly flawed system that bends over backwards to give the accused the benefit of the doubt...so chill. This is about us and who we are as a nation, not about them. If we try them fairly and openly for all the world to see, then the terrorists have lost.

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While I’m away from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons drawn at this same time of year back in 2005.

I think you’ll agree that some of the subjects will bring back old, dormant memories, while others could have been drawn for today’s paper.

I remember that the news was still buzzing with the Kansas Intelligent Design vote, and I was looking for a way to make the issue relevant to South Floridians.

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While I’m away from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons drawn at this same time of year back in 2005.

I think you’ll agree that some of the subjects will bring back old, dormant memories, while others could have been drawn for today’s paper.

As you can see, some things never change.

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While I’m away from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons drawn at this same time of year back in 2005.

I think you’ll agree that some of the subjects will bring back old, dormant memories, while others could have been drawn for today’s paper.

This cartoon is one of my personal favorites.

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While I’m away from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons drawn at this same time of year back in 2005.

I think you’ll agree that some of the subjects will bring back old, dormant memories, while others could have been drawn for today’s paper.

This business of accusing Americans who disagreed with the Bush war policy as unpatriotic displayed the administration at its worst.

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While I’m away from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons drawn at this same time of year back in 2005.

I think you’ll agree that some of the subjects will bring back old, dormant memories, while others could have been drawn for today’s paper.

> Discuss this entry

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