War
What can we do but hope? As I’ve said to anyone who wanted to talk about the then-impending war: I think it’s the wrong war at the wrong time. Had we received the backing of the U.N. I would have felt entirely different about what’s going on. The U.N.’s indecision obviously didn’t change anything, nor did hundreds of thousands of people protesting throughout the world. I can only hope that the President was privy to some information that the public was not and that he is acting in our best interests, even though a lot of us do not agree with his decision. I really do not think that this is about oil and actually believe the President when he says his purpose is to disarm Iraq, liberate the Iraqi people, and end this horrible man’s reign of senseless terror. Perhaps I’m just being ignorantly optimistic in feeling this way, but it is easier to soak all of this in if you believe that the end will justify the means. Again, I don’t agree with the timing of this nor the way in which we tried to bully the world into accepting our urgent agenda, but it has begun and there is no turning back.
A few friends of mine are directly involved with this war and my heart goes out to them. While this is their job and they are just doing their duty, it must be incredibly difficult to fight in a war, much less one that has left their country so deeply divided. I hope, for the sake of our troops, the Iraqi people, and the image of our nation, that the war is as swift and as lossless as possible.
Like a lot of people I know, I vaguely remember the first Gulf War. It seemed so different then. I was only 11 at the time and really had no concept of what was going on. Now, I’m extremely well-informed and find myself consumed by it. We are able to view the war like never before. We have live video feeds in every corner of Iraq, overzealous news reporters declaring themselves a part of the infantry, Internet sites and news channels that talk about NOTHING ELSE, and countless weblogs all over the world reporting, commenting, and otherwise offering up an opinion. It is absolutely remarkable, this eye available to us; at our fingertips; at the click of a mouse. While I have a distinct affinity for knowledge and information, I can’t help but to feel overwhelmed sometimes when my intravenous CNN drip starts to flood my mind.
I’m afraid I’ll never understand what makes tyrants tyrants. I don’t think I’ll ever quite grasp what makes people want to hurt others en masse. I suppose religious fanaticism, greed, and sheer desire for control will always claim a mindless few who will not stop until they have either made the non-believing believe, the poor poorer, or the world surrender. How someone can become so complacent with killing and torturing others will forever be lost on me.
I would like to think that in an age of such technology, growth, and understanding, we, as a species, would be able to better utilize our time by concentrating on something more constructive than ever more destructive munitions. Sadly, it’s becoming more apparent each day that this is a necessary evil and that without all of our military might and sophistication, we’d be run over pretty quickly. Be that as it may, I can still envision a future where the international community can play nice; where respect and admiration of other’s cultures and beliefs is commonplace; where everyone realizes that all anyone wants is happiness and freedom and far be it from anyone to deny someone of that; where we don’t have a fucking color band flashing on the screen every five minutes to remind us of how scared we should be (oops, sorry, I mean how ‘vigilant’ we should be). Perhaps my willfull suspension of disbelief has taken over. Perhaps I’m just human.
As JFK once said, “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.” I hope that the machines get a chance to remove us from existence before we do it ourselves.
