What war? The one Pres. Bush begged the world (except for Muslim countries) to come and join him in eliminating Saddam Hussein. Why not? No one was doing anything and it killed time.

Then lots of nations said, &uot;No, thank you, we’re busy.&uot; England said, &uot;Why not? We have nothing scheduled.&uot; Prime Minister Blair became a buddy of Bush’s and joined him in asking all the un-Muslim nations to join the party. If only these nations were Indians it would be a &uot;war party.&uot;

France, Germany and Russia gave Bush and Blair a definite, &uot;No way, not for us. See the U.N. and get approval, but look for a veto from us when a vote there is taken.&uot;

Friends? With them you need no enemies.

So to war went Bush and Blair. Many in U.S. were against this war. Only 19 percent in England said OK. Unpopular it surely was. The only &uot;Yes&uot; we got was from small African nations that went along knowing economic help was in store for them and my, could they ever use it. Poland jumped on the &uot;We’re with you&uot; bandwagon. Boy! Are we a popular nation! We buy friends.

Iraq (that’s who we’d be fighting) had a powerful army and true to Saddam and his two sons. I didn’t approve of this war since we really had no reason for it. But Bush would be emperor and I was so grateful our military was the best in the world.

England wasn’t too bad either, but it would take more than England and U.S.A. to knock off Saddam. No one told our boys (and gals) about this fact, so enter the heroes (and heroines) who took a whack at Saddam’s pride and joy.

We knocked them out and Saddam and sons disappeared into the night and can’t be found to this day. Bush declared the fighting was over – we won! (Knew we would!) We lost so few it didn’t seem like a war.

Reality steps in now. These people need so much. Were they grateful we would now help? Never! They wanted us out – and in a hurry. At this point I questioned how do you put a democratic government into a Muslim country with all the adjoining countries the same? That’s like putting a round block into a square hole. Doesn’t work.

Now matters change and our boys (the victorious ones) begin to be picked off by organized military. We lost more in a short while from ambush attacks than when we had a legitimate war waging. Still no Saddam and sons (sounds like a plumbing concern).

The ambush attacks continue. I just wish our boys would come home and leave the many different tribes in Iraq to shift for themselves. What a mess that would be.

Note: I wrote entire column listening to a Mills Brothers’ tape. Errors in grammar, spelling or fact, see them.

Florence Arena is a resident of Hillcrest Retirement Center and a regular News-Herald columnist.