Sometimes it can be fun to just speculate on something. We all do it. You may speculate on tomorrow's weather and hope it doesn't rain or snow, you may buy a lottery ticket and speculate that your numbers will win or you may speculate that that your team will win tomorrow's match. That's all pretty innocent stuff.

Not quite so innocent are the money and stockmarket speculators who may gain or lose a lot of what is usually your money at the touch of a computer key. Worse yet, they may engage in insider trading and speculate that they will get away with it, then run off with a big bankroll of other peoples money.

But I like to speculate on something quite different. You see, ever since George W. Bush' State of the Union address I 've been wondering why he's suddenly so keen on putting a man on the planet Mars. After all, he's already running the biggest deficit in the history of the USA, wants to give more taxcuts to the rich, more money for the military etc. You would think that with all the needs of people on the homefront there wouldn't be any money left for such an extravagant idea as travelling to Mars.

But then it suddenly dawned on me. It is a known fact that George W. has a direct line to God, or at least he says so. After all, it was God who told him to become president, It was God who said to attack Afghanistan and chase out the Taliban, and it was God who told him to attack Iraq, get rid of Saddam Hussein and get all that delicious oil for himself. So what if you have to go to war for that.

But there is one thing that didn't quite fit. The God most people know in any religion is a God of love, a God who preaches tolerance, sharing and care for your fellow human beings. And that just can't be the same God that George W. talks to.

So who does he talk to and who gives him his instructions? I'm speculating that George's God is located on the planet Mars, for in the old Roman days Mars was the God of War. George wants a private audience with Marsicon, the God of the Neo-cons to slap him on the back, thank him for the wonderful ideas about Afghanistan and Iraq and then sit down for a planning session to tell Marsicon where he wants to take his armies to next. For George is not the kind of man who will take second place to anybody, not even to the God Marsicon. He'll set up a military base on Mars, remove Marsicon from power and declare himself the God of War. Now that's the boy George!

W. Vic Ratsma is a lifelong political activist. Now retired and living in Nova Scotia, Canada, he contributes articles and poetry in both English and Dutch to a number of progressive publications.