The wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan will fade from American interests by 2006,not because either war will be won, but because the government and the media combined will divert the country’s attention elsewhere. Perhaps something positive. A new mission to the moon. A cure for same-sex attractions. Or the discovery of massive oil reserves under the cities of New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Madison. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pittsburg, Portland, Minneapolis, and the entire state of Vermont. (Alaska will be renamed North Texas.)

Young men and women will still be dying in the Middle East by the thousands each year, maimed by the tens of thousands, but most Americans, except for the individual families of the heroic dead and wounded troops, will never hear or see of it. The dead will be delivered in the dark to their hometown cemeteries for midnight burial services and a folded flag presented to the loved ones to the sound of muted trumpets playing silent taps.

There will only be vague memories of Middle-Eastern countries that either have been democratized or are still undergoing treatment under friendly fire.

Americans at home will be branded (something similar to the universal bar code) on the inner wrist of the right hand to insure proper identity. This will guarantee travel safety as patriots will merely wave their right wrist over a scanner before boarding planes. The added benefit for law enforcement (from traffic violation to domestic disturbances) is almost incalculable, as one quick scan will inform the Proper Sources as to education, marital state, children, home address, travel destinations, employment record, gun ownership, sexual preferences, place of employment, tax records, property ownership, flag display, bank balances, financial investments, library and film history, evangelical or unchristian, health records, and personality traits.

A Republican majority in Congress (and a power committee of former Bush supporters) will see to it that Arnold Schwarzenegger runs and wins the next election. His running mate will be an animated figure created by the Walt Disney corporation.

This same group will also call for (and approve) a new American flag. Same stars in a field of blue. Same red and white stripes. But from top to bottom. from left to right, a gold satin cross.

An enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete (The Ministry of Truth) will soar hundreds of feet before the White House where citizen patriots
will be able to read in elegant lettering:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH