The Cousinhood on Iraq

Kiko's House is delighted to welcome Country Bumpkin as its first guest blogger.

He describes himself thusly:

Country Bumpkin is the blogging pseudonym of John Schnellenberg, semi-retired businessman "d'un certain age", who lives in Masterton, New Zealand. Masterton, about 90 minutes north of the capital, Wellington, is a town of some 20,000 souls which exists to provide services to a large and prosperous agricultural and horticultural hinterland, a fact which has stunted its progress for several generations. In keeping with trends now discernible in many parts of the world, the town, it's neighbouring villages, and the countryside are being increasingly peopled by ex-city dwellers like Country Bumpkin, with highly beneficial consequences. (Well, I would say that, wouldn't I?) Country Bumpkin has no special qualifications to be a writer, other than possessing the usual strong opinions found among bloggers, for whom the weblog is an ideal release. Expect to find from this resident of the bottom right-hand corner of the South Pacific, views about the world, about events in New Zealand, and the occasional counter-point to the views of Kiko, who is my cousin, Shaun.

I must add that Country Bumpkin is being too modest. He and I have now amassed two years or so of correspondence on Iraq and a wide variety of other subjects. Let's call it The Cousinhood.

Through these Cousinhood exchanges, Country Bumpkin has revealed himself to be a superbly well read and a deeply principled thinker with a great ability to understand the present in the context of the past. ("Those who forget the past are condemned to repeated it," and so on and so forth.) He also has a terrific sense of humor, a bit unusual for Kiwis in my experience. Perhaps best of all in this age of incipient dogmatism, Country Bumpkin is not afraid to change his mind when the facts and circumstances justify it. I would like to believe that I'm the same way.

In any event, following are two posts from The Cousinhood that take very different views of the war in Iraq:

Iraq I: Everyone Can See the Tunnel, But Where's the Light?
By Country Bumpkin

Iraq II: A Little Charity (Very Little)
By KikoKimba

Enjoy, and by all means let us know what you think.