At the Beginning

Welcome to Unsolicited Opinion, yet another blog. It's taken me a while to set this one up. I am posting a few previous essays and hope to provide some interesting commentary on events.

These days I am pre-occupied with the Iraq war/occupation. Iraq may not be another Vietnam for America but it is a war and all war leads to brutality and dehumanization so in that regard, it's very similar. Iraq is also similar to Vietnam in that America is a foreign occupier in a country with a long history of nationalist hostility to foreign occupation and control. It is a war that the US did not have to fight. Now it's costing Iraqi and American lives and money and has distracted the US from its stated goal of defeating international terrorism. I'll post a couple previous essays to get started.

As a relief from the war, politics and current events, I am also writing about my 2,000 mile Appalachian Trail hike in 2002. I'll post excerpts from my manuscript as a diversion.