Tuesday, October 26, 2004
What a nightmare
I forgot, I didn't want to go trolling around for political material again...
380 tons of bloody explosives disappearing?
What did they think?
If there were less at stake, it would all be a bit like watching an undefeated football team swagger into the Superbowl to get shut out by the underdog--kinda fun, and one of those nice instances where hubris is duly rewarded. Unfortunately, it ain't football we're talking about.
Nevermind all the reasons I would cite for not waging war, for spending money on social programs instead, for at least understanding exactly what sort of precident a policy of 'pre-emptive strikes' really looses on the globe in an age of nuclear warheads, nevermind that the premise for going in was completely flawed, nevermind all the rubbish that invariably accompanies war (and the spectacle of American troops acting as they did in Abu Ghraib remains the single most hopeless sight I have thus far experienced under the present administration)--nevermind all of that, and concentrate on this fact: when 380 tons of explosives go missing under your guard, you must admit that there may have been some fairly hefty miscalculations when this administration was assessing the true cost of this war.
The result is many, many dead, on both sides, a nation in chaos (and looking quite likely to elect a fundamentalist Muslim government--if allowed to...), and even more weapons in the hands of terrorists. To say absolutely nothing of what looks more like the death of democracy in America every day.
My wife reminds me that the America I love is a literary conceit. I know it's a lot more complex than saying things used to be better--but damn, I sure don't want to see them get worse.
380 tons of bloody explosives disappearing?
What did they think?
If there were less at stake, it would all be a bit like watching an undefeated football team swagger into the Superbowl to get shut out by the underdog--kinda fun, and one of those nice instances where hubris is duly rewarded. Unfortunately, it ain't football we're talking about.
Nevermind all the reasons I would cite for not waging war, for spending money on social programs instead, for at least understanding exactly what sort of precident a policy of 'pre-emptive strikes' really looses on the globe in an age of nuclear warheads, nevermind that the premise for going in was completely flawed, nevermind all the rubbish that invariably accompanies war (and the spectacle of American troops acting as they did in Abu Ghraib remains the single most hopeless sight I have thus far experienced under the present administration)--nevermind all of that, and concentrate on this fact: when 380 tons of explosives go missing under your guard, you must admit that there may have been some fairly hefty miscalculations when this administration was assessing the true cost of this war.
The result is many, many dead, on both sides, a nation in chaos (and looking quite likely to elect a fundamentalist Muslim government--if allowed to...), and even more weapons in the hands of terrorists. To say absolutely nothing of what looks more like the death of democracy in America every day.
My wife reminds me that the America I love is a literary conceit. I know it's a lot more complex than saying things used to be better--but damn, I sure don't want to see them get worse.
# posted by Gene Justice @ 6:15 AM 
