Saturday, December 30, 2006

Criminal Poor Judgement: Extinct Baiji Dolphin & Iraq War

This week saw the rarest of all dolphins, the baiji, declared " functionally extinct ". It had existed in the Yangtze River for the past 20 million years. But with the construction of Three Gorges Dam, the dolphin has not been seen since 2003. The hydroelectric dam provides electricity for a portion of the 1.3 billion Chinese that now ravage that part of China.

This week also saw the hanging execution of Saddam Hussein. So far that is the only dubious accomplishment that our country has gotten for it's 500 billion spent in the ravaging of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Poor judgement was used in both cases.The fact that a handful of dolphins were too much and had to be forced out of existence so 1.3 billion Chinese could " advance" their consumerism is a crime. The fact the U.S. spent 1/2 trillion dollars, killed or dislocated millions of Iraqis while killing or maiming tens of thousands of American soldiers in the pursuit of an illegal war is also a crime.

And what will the punishment be for these crimes? The Chinese in the end will meet the same fate of all overpopulated species-they will starve down to a more appropriate head count. And hopefully the architects of the criminal and illegal Iraqi war should meet a similar Hussein-type fate.

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