A Day to Blog About War
http://luckycandice.blogspot.com/2007/03/day-to-blog-about-war.html
Sometimes the people in power do things that are wrong. Cheating on their wife during office hours, for example. Or tapping the phones of the other party's campaign headquarters. Or barfing on the Japanese Prime Minister. Or misspelling "potato." For example.
But sometimes, some things are more than wrong, more than just mistakes. Some things are evil. Like lying to an entire country to enter a war. Like exposing a CIA agent for the purposes of intimidation and revenge. Like stripping away civil liberties. Like believing that torture is okay, as long as the victims don't look like "us."
The Iraqi people, at least some of them, seemed happy that Saddam Hussein was out of power (because Christ on a cracker, talk about your evil leadership) but I suppose they knew, much better than we knew (ahem, cared?) that it's not that simple. Are things really better for the people of Iraq? I don't know that. I do know that things are much worse for "us." A war with no end in sight. A war the rest of the world disagrees with. A war that costs lives, every day. And money, money that could be used to feed hungry children, to stop the genocide in Darfur.
And it makes me angry. And I want to turn back time and never send our troops into Iraq in the first place (or turn back time even further and never provide the support that helped Saddam Hussein gain his power in the first place). And I want to grant asylum to all the innocent mothers and children and babies and puppies and I want our government to follow the Geneva Conventions and, mostly, very much, I just want people to stop blowing each other up. But what do I know? I'm just a person who still believes that doing the right thing is always the right answer.
Sometimes the people in power do things that are wrong. Cheating on their wife during office hours, for example. Or tapping the phones of the other party's campaign headquarters. Or barfing on the Japanese Prime Minister. Or misspelling "potato." For example.
But sometimes, some things are more than wrong, more than just mistakes. Some things are evil. Like lying to an entire country to enter a war. Like exposing a CIA agent for the purposes of intimidation and revenge. Like stripping away civil liberties. Like believing that torture is okay, as long as the victims don't look like "us."
The Iraqi people, at least some of them, seemed happy that Saddam Hussein was out of power (because Christ on a cracker, talk about your evil leadership) but I suppose they knew, much better than we knew (ahem, cared?) that it's not that simple. Are things really better for the people of Iraq? I don't know that. I do know that things are much worse for "us." A war with no end in sight. A war the rest of the world disagrees with. A war that costs lives, every day. And money, money that could be used to feed hungry children, to stop the genocide in Darfur.
And it makes me angry. And I want to turn back time and never send our troops into Iraq in the first place (or turn back time even further and never provide the support that helped Saddam Hussein gain his power in the first place). And I want to grant asylum to all the innocent mothers and children and babies and puppies and I want our government to follow the Geneva Conventions and, mostly, very much, I just want people to stop blowing each other up. But what do I know? I'm just a person who still believes that doing the right thing is always the right answer.
posted by Neno | 7:01 AM
4 Comments:
Oh, amen. And amen and amen and A-MEN.
Sigh. Just...sigh. It can be wearying sometimes, but doing the right thing, and believing in the right thing is always worth it. It has to be.
There are those special, defining, moments that remind me why I love you so much and how proud it makes me to be your husband.
Keep up the good work.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home