Where did THAT come from?

Okay, it's history in the minds of most Americans now, if they noticed at all, but at the end of the week, if you were paying attention, you saw where, seemingly all of a sudden to us, the man on the street, Bear/Stearns, the huge New York investment bank all of a sudden had what was described--seemingly accurately--as a "depression-era style" run on the bank.

Holy cow.

Who saw that coming?

I heard it had been rumored for a while but if it was, it must have only been in the halls of financial institutions.

This is HUGE.

Who knew they were not only in trouble but BIG trouble? Sure the Fed and JP Morgan have stepped in and sort of cleaned up the mess but this creates big questions to be answered.

For one, how much is this gonna cost you and me, to clean up? How many millions of tax dollars are going to be needed to make this go away? Any? Lots? Not many? What? How much?

And for the much bigger picture, since we have heard rumors--many more, and bigger, but somewhat similar rumors--about Citibank being in either the same or worse trouble: is Citibank next? If not, why not? Can we be sure of that? And if so, why? Why would they be in good shape when we've heard differently out here and when Bear-Stearns--and others--have been or are in trouble? What can we believe? What do we know? What do we not know? What do we need to know? And we want--and need--to know it all and FAST, thank you.

And so, that begs more of the same questions about virtually all other financial institutions in the United States. Who's in trouble? Who isn't? What needs to be done? What's going to be done? Is anyone driving this bus?

And that seems to be the question I'm personally left with, time and again. That is, who's driving this bus? Who's in control? What are they doing? What are they going to do? Where are we going?

This comes straight out of this financial/subprime loans/financial institutions mess but can also be directly related to our situation in Iraq, don't you think? We know how we got here, of that we're sure. But, given that, where are we now? And, more importantly, what do we do now? How long are we going to be in Iraq? What's the plan? Is there a plan? I get the feeling that there isn't one. I get the feeling the press doesn't think there's a plan. I get the feeling that most of America doesn't think there's a good, intelligent, viable, affordable plan.

We all agree we can't go on sending American Troops overseas forever, even if we think they should have been sent there in the first place (which is pretty unbelievable to me, personally, but that's my opinion, though, God knows I'm anything but alone).

We also, I think, agree, as a country, that we shouldn't be putting money and materiel into the Middle East forever.

Did I say shouldn't? Hell, can't. We CAN'T keep putting our money into Iraq interminably. That makes no sense at all. There's too many things we can't afford already.

So, that said, we don't have a plan, right? We agree on that?

Well, for the further, last step, let's ask who's asking the questions? Who's asking what our plan is? Congress? Nope, I don't think so. It's an election year. They're busy or afraid to stir up any mess or both.

The media? Are they asking what the plan is? Again, a resounding no. They're asking whether Geraldine Ferraro is a racist. You know, the important questions. They're focused on the election of the next President (sort of). They can't be bothered.

So I say let's start asking the big questions, folks. Let's ask. Let's ask what we're doing in Iraq RIGHT NOW and what are we going to do in the future? Where are we headed? Oh, and how about "what makes sense for the country and the world?", while we're at it.

Surely someone out there has some ideas. And, God willing, answers.