[There You'll Be]

Oh wow! I had no idea about him being strongly against them.

I did know they didn't have WMD's.

But I had no clue about the rest.

[sunnykerr]

Saddam Hussein was a horrible dictator.

No one's crying that he's out of power or that he's dead.

But, one thing that happens when you're a dictator is that you're going to be against anyone who can be a rival to your power.

So Saddam wasn't part of al-Qaeda, therefore he was a big enemy of al-Qaeda.

That's about it, really.

Also, the second Saddam was gone, religious extremism started being a thing in Iraq.

It hadn't been before.

[There You'll Be]

Ah, thank you.

I didn't even realize, but it makes absolute sense, when you have all the power, as a dictator, you would be against anyone who was a threat.

That's a natural reaction.

It's crazy how the world works. To me anyway.

[sunnykerr]

It is crazy, how the world works.

And it makes me happy that I'm not involved in a whole lot of it.

Because, at the international level anyway, I feel like there are compromises that governments have to make that don't look so good, you know?

Osama ben Laden was an ally of the U.S. in the 1970s when the U.S. fought to eject the USSR out of Aghanistan.

And look how that turned out, you know?

But then, at that time, a big policy goal of the U.S. was to fight the USSR, and you all were just over the Vietnam War, so I'm assuming there was also some desire to make sure it didn't start all over again in another part of the world.

[There You'll Be]

I think that's where I really have a problem, with the things that don't look so good in the big picture/small picture.

That makes sense, that they would not want Vietnam all over again.

I think that really made some compromises that weren't great looking back on them.

[sunnykerr]

The things that don't look good in the big or small picture are hard for everyone, you know.

Most of us don't think of them very much.

But they're good to know, generally, to understand what's going on in your life.

For instance, you're still feeling the effects of the 2008 economic crisis.

It's been getting better, but the U.S. economy is still struggling.

And there are many, many reasons why the 2008 economic crisis happened.

Going to war without raising taxes, de-regulating the banking industry, etc.

I'm just saying, when your benefits get cut... you know why it happens.

[There You'll Be]

That is all true.

Mom usually informs me when things are going to affect me.

And then I check into them, so I do understand what's happening to me, and why.

I knew that's why my food benefits got cut by 3/4.

Only because my mom warned me.

[sunnykerr]

It's why I keep an eye on the news.

I mean, I genuinely find it interesting.

But I also like to understand what happens to me.

[There You'll Be]

That makes sense-we definitely need to know what/why things are affecting us.

[sunnykerr]

All I know is that I need that.

Everyone has to find their own way.

[There You'll Be]

True, we all do.

I just happen to fully agree on knowing about what directly affects me.

[sunnykerr]

Okay then.

[There You'll Be]

Okay, what do we talk about now?

[sunnykerr]

I got another book in the mail today.

This time, it was another novel.

This one is set in Italy.

That was the topic I picked the last time.

What's going on where you are?

How are your classes going at the mental health centre?

Or what are you working on lately?

[There You'll Be]

I think that's so cool that you pick your books by topic!

I had never done that when I was reading really.

That should be a good novel-it always sounds romantic-Italy.

Mostly I'm sticking with a class dealing with emotions.

It's also helped me deal with my emotions, and stop trying to change other people's emotions.

The teacher is very relatable-though I guess that's why they're there.