Author: Gary Beck Source: http://www.polseguera.com/writers/writing-530_learning-curve.html Learning Curve Gary Beck/Learning Curve   Urban Reaches Alone in a great city strangers pass, intent on jobs, crime, shopping, terror. I know not what. They all look remote, don't say 'good morning', don't meet my gaze, except the hostiles, when I quickly look away. I cannot tell who is good, kind, normal, smart enough to build a future. Temporarily marooned in a vast enclosure I do not know what to do to establish an identity.     Righteous Speech We removed Saddam Hussein because he was an evil man gassing his people, developing nuclear weapons, a threat to world peace.   So elected leaders of the good old U.S.A., self-appointed international policeman, decided arbitrarily, against some sensible advice that state building replacing tyranny with democracy is a difficult task in an alien land without due process, or civil rights, and a fanatic clergy opposed to Western ways.   But our elected leaders ignored warning signs and decided. Saddam must go.   So we invaded Iraq, crushed feeble resistance, a super power flexing its military, and we excavated Saddam from his hiding hole and swift justice followed.   So we helped install a new government that didn't know how to govern, in a land divided by race, religion, tribe. And we proclaimed to the world democracy was born.   But unrest was everywhere and conflict spread across the land. And we withdrew our troops and self-appointed bureaucrats, as chaos prevailed.   Our elected leaders announced: 'Our mission is complete'. A newly elected democratic government rules the land, so we met our goals. Our virtuous troops brought freedom to a long suffering people.   But when the government couldn't govern, and religious strife, the lust for power, erupted into bloody war we looked the other way. It wasn't our problem anymore.   Our elected leaders never asked was Iraq better off with Saddam. And we'll never know if they lied to themselves, lied to us, or were just demented. But the benefit of democracy, is we get what we deserve.     Homeless VIII They robbed my cans for the second time in a week. I hustled my ass off getting those cans and got nothing for it. At least they didn't beat me. Maybe I'll get me a knife and cut them good if they try to rob me again.     Conflict Armies march in many lands. Rebels attack in many lands. Conflicts simmer across the globe, boil over, erupt in deadly violence, destroying lives, property, eradicating aspirations for stability, disallowing normal pursuits, education, home building, raising children, hoping tomorrow will be better then the savagery today.     Onslaught We go about our daily routines, those of us who have business, jobs, shopping, social life, all the activities common to civilization, only interrupted by war, plague, disaster, that thwarts plans to build, create, acquire whatever we desire, while the fortunate are allowed continuation after the crisis is over.   'Learning Curve' is an unpublished collection concerned with the decline of Western civilization, as leading figures struggle with the issues of our times.