What's the worst thing about the impending war?

I need to get a current affairs rant out of my system… I’ve chosen to remain pretty politically agnostic on my blog so as not to alienate potential readers, because I’m much more passionate about my projects than politics, and because I don’t know enough to coherently form an opinion. In fact, I doubt I’ve ever met someone who has access to enough data and has done the research required to form a coherent and solid opinion. That’s ok, though; that’s why we hire/elect people to spend their lives doing the legwork necessary to talk and act on these issues.

Here’s what sickens me: Seeing so many people, on both sides of the issue, argue, quite often dramatically and with much venom and anger, as if they had even an ounce of the knowledge and data necessary to form a coherent opinion. I disengage because I don’t find what most people write to be credible… it’s usually just redigested material they’ve heard from redigested sources, ad nauseum.

I’m not going to propose that going to war is better or worse than not going to war, because, remember, I don’t know enough to make that decision. However, I think it’s ok for me to rant a little bit to the extremists. Fair warning: I’m not saying anything new. Politely skip this if you’re not interested and I’ll go back to my funny chicken stories soon enough.So, here we go:

Pro-war People: This is viewed by foreigners as America bullying its way around the world, defying international opinion, and arrogantly dictating its will. It will bite us in the ass. It will cause retalitation… Most especially because THE CASE HAS NOT BEEN PROVEN. No smoking gun makes us look like cowboys and warmongers. President Bush and his extensive group of advisors had their mind made up from the get-go. More/different diplomacy could have been tried rather than the hard-ass rhetoric from day one.

And nobody believes you when you say this is only about “Freedom” and “Liberty” and that we’ll be out of there soon after (a year to rebuild, President Bush? Oh, PLEASE tell me that you don’t really think it’d take only a year). Fess up to the economic and power advantages of having American presence in the region and maybe we’ll trust your motives a little more, eh?

And don’t kid yourselves. This ain’t gonna be a quick and easy war. Young, American men and women are going to die by the droves. When you back a wild animal in a corner, expect that he will snap out of desperation. Chemical weapons, nukes, war crimes.. it’s all going to happen. Sadaam, if he’s smart, will do everything he can to involve other countries (Israel, you’re on deck)… prolonging the conflict. Super-duper-humungo-bombs, notwithstanding, we’re not invincible.

In particular, domestic terrorism is almost a given. Tell it like it is: I won’t believe that this war will make for a safer world without causing some immense pain… and probably in my backyard.

One other thing in regard to wanting to help the Iraqi people. Buildings hold people. When you “Shock and Awe” by destroying buildings and infrastructure, don’t be “Shocked and Awed” when the civillian body count rachets up… remember, they don’t have a chance to escape (because they’d be considered traitors and executed if they left).

Anti-war American Peaceniks: Please stop all the screaming and start doing something constructive, for a change. Protests, walkouts, etc. are unproductive and harm our communities, and frankly, your message is lost in the activity. Please stop crying that “It’s ONLY about the oil;” if nothing else, I hope you are intelligent enough to recognize that this situation is a hell of a lot more complicated than a few catchy phrases on your signs… For example, there are atrocities against women and children that this war could help stop by planting seeds of freedom in corrupt regions of the Middle East.

Diplomacy? Ha. Madmen, folks, these people are madmen. In all the yammering I’ve heard and read from the anti-war crowd, I’ve yet to hear a feasible alternative to the simple activity of flexing our muscle. Why are they called “Protests?” It’s because they’re always “against something.” Please, put your brains together and come up with something that will make me feel safe to bring children into this world.

Please don’t deny that this is a horrific regieme in power there: he hates the Western world (and, like it or not, that means you and your peace-lovin’ families and the hundreds of thousands of elementary school children who weren’t even born during the Gulf War), and given the opportunity, he and other extremists would wipe us from the planet so they can go on with their rape and brutality.

Don’t dismiss the Weapons of Mass Destruciton argument. Sadaam agreed not to have them as punishment for committing war crimes against innocent civillians and trying to invade, unprovoked, his neighbors so as to increase his empire. Even the UN inspectors have cited violations of this agreement. What good are treaties and agreements if they are not enforced? I certainly would not want to live in the chaos of a planet where contracts were never upheld.

Finally: He IS your President. The system of government you take benefit from every single day of your life put him in office. If you don’t like the system, change it. Otherwise, live up to your half of the bargain and honor the office if not the man. Or maybe you’d rather us be like Iraq where you, your grandmother, and your neighbors would be shot for calling him “Shrub”?

Here’s what I hope:

1. It’s quick.
2. Death, particularly civillian death, is at a minimum.
3. American and allied soldiers are treated with respect. Iraqi civillians are treated with respect, as well.
4. The firefighters on standby in Kuwait can get the oil fields under control as quickly as possible after Sadaam orders their destruction. The oil is key to a successful rebuilding of the region.
5. For the survival of our species, please, please, please, don’t let Israel get involved. Any bets on how long it takes SCUD missles to rain on Israel, urging them to retaliate and escalating the American insurrection into a global Holy War?
6. I morbidly hope that when the smoke clears, all the horrible stuff the Ba’ath party in Iraq has committed in the past 20 years comes to light and everyone in the world puts their hand over their jaw-dropped mouth and goes, “ohhhh…”

That’s the ONLY way this will have been worth it, in my mind.

03.18.03 – 13:05 – fixed some misspelled words