Tomorrow

I'm driving people around tomorrow to vote. I think Kerry will win, although I think he will be cleaning up the most corrupt and authoritarian government we've ever had so I'm equally worried about what will happen if he wins.

My aunt, who works for an international development agency in Washington DC writes me this:

"Yesterday, I spent 20 minutes talking with a scientist from Iraq. He and his wife, also a scientist, are here on a 4-month project. He said how the Bush Administration had done everything possible wrong since the war in March 2003... how they did not secure anything important, from the munitions places to the museum's ancient treasures... how they disbanded the Iraqi army and police, and that these men had no way to support their families... how they have offered no real protection to the Iraqi people during this whole time and how tens of thousands of civilians have died in this period (the Washington Post yesterday put it at 100,000 Iraqi dead since March 03)... how he is a Christian, and how Christians and their churches are now being targeted, adding that they were never in jeopardy under Saddam (he was not unhappy to see Saddam go, but said that at least under Saddam, the general population was not in constant danger as it is now)."

When people say "the world is a better place without Saddam" it is a statement of faith, a dogma, one that holds true for the believer, a believer who has no need for evidence.