It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.

- Aesop

I was watching Jon Stewart last night and he ran and re-ran the videotape of John McCain's recent visit to Baghdad, sporting his armored vest (too bad the troops can't get those) and surrounded by a few hundred armed guard. I noticed that he had a nice wide buffer between himself and the coterie that was there to buffer him, obviously to ensure some semblance of nonchalance during his visit and the fact that he was making statements regarding the newblown safety of these streets - despite that just beyond his vision, beyond the wall of guards, were the ruins of a once-great city. Families in Baghdad have been torn apart, their homeland in ruins. I am not going to get into the political argument here, as I do agree there are too many issues involved to distill down to a simple blog entry, and to do so would trivialize too many lost lives. That said, I think we need to remember that there have been thousands of lives lost, and whole dynasties destroyed forever on both sides of this ugly historic scar. Until we have the courage to walk those streets unarmed and unprotected, with both hands extended, we have no business pretending that we are either victorious or brave.