war is imminent... @%$#@#!
My Opinions on the War. I reeeeaaaaally didn't want this war to happen, but I had a feeling it was coming. I just don't support the war at all. I don't think the war is as necessary as Bush makes it out to be. Why is it that we (America) think that it's so necessary to fight, and yet the rest of the world disagrees? If the threat is so great and if we have so much evidence, wouldn't the rest of the world be a little bit more convinced? And really, what's so different now that makes an attack so necessary that hasn't been just as true for all of the last 12 years? I think we're still desperately looking for someone to pound in retaliation for the 9-11 attacks- we just weren't satisfied by Afghanistan.
And I can't help but think that the Bush administration has some ulterior motives in this war, namely oil. Oil and money, money and oil... there's been speculation that part of the reason that France opposes war is cuz of it's oil dealings with Iraq. And one should never forget that Bush is a former oil baron; I'm sure his decisions are at least partially influenced by profits for him and his buddies. But also, doesn't it seem like Bush is simply finishing up "daddy's war"? Completing his dad's unfinished business, settling a family grudge or whatever. And then you've gotta think about the costs of war- the monetary ones in addition to the countless lives. Wars just cost a lot to fight. Our economy is already in the hole, and this would only dig us deeper into debt and deficit. After you go in and rough up a country, it seems that somewhere the rules say you have to help them rebuild. Rebuilding costs probably just as much, if not more than war- time and money. And hey, we're already skimping on our promises to help rebuild Afghanistan. And are we going to end up simply replacing one bad leader with another whose views are slightly more pro-American (as we have in the past)? The US has a pretty shady past, actually- Shah Reza Pahlavi is the one that comes to mind, with the oil and whatnot. International politics are motivated by money.
One thing that bugs me is the hypocrisy of our stance against Iraq. We say the war is necessary cuz we've got a hunch that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction and is playing games with the inspectors. Yet what about North Korea? Here's a country that we know has the capability to produce nukes in the near future and has kicked out the inspectors from their country. They've pulled out of International treaties (non-proliferation and test ban). And they actually have a sophisticated enough knowledge of rocketry to shoot a missile all the way to the United States. You tell me which one seems like a bigger problem. Yet here we are saying that Iraq's gotta go, and we sit and do nothing to North Korea- not even negotiate.
And the whole idea of a "pre-eminent attack" being justified baffles me. I mean, who gets to decide what constitutes a serious enough threat that you should attack first and be a threat towards someone else. I think our move sets a very bad precedent for the start of future wars; wars'll erupt with less warning, just cuz somebody had a "hunch." And also, we basically declared war without UN approval (another bad precedent)- the UN says our war isn't justified, yet we're going ahead nonetheless. I think this move singlehandedly rendered the UN irrelevant; if we can go to war without them saying it's ok, then what's to stop anyone else from doing the same? It may have been true from the start and just needed to be proved, but the UN appears powerless now. To hell with what the world thinks- the US does what it wants. What the US says, goes.
Man, I'm sick of the US always taking the stance of moral superiority; what makes us think we're always the ones in the right? You know, the reason we're the target of terrorism is cuz our foreign policy is so bad. No one wants us in the Middle East, yet we continue to stick our noses in people's business over there, thinking we're some kinda god-chosen referee for things. It reminds me of the Christian missionaries of old trying to convert the Native Americans; geez, no one asked to be "saved." And now the war's gonna cause all sorts of repercussions in international politics. Muslim countries'll hate us more than they do already, and the countries that used to be our allies seem to be turning against us. We're losing credibility on the international scene.
But yea, going back to how Muslim countries hate us, the war is incentive for terrorists to strike- it's just adding fuel to their fire. I think we're gonna see a notable rise in terrorism and anti-American activity cuz of our actions. And I mean, Saddam's obviously not gonna fight us in a straight up war- even he must know we hold the sheer military advantage. So how do you fight to win when you're the underdog? Well, guerilla warfare worked in Vietnam against our troops, and we thought it was cowardly as hell... but the fact remains, it worked. There's all kinds of dirty ways to fight a war. We're limited by the fact that we like to bring our troops home after a conflict; they aren't. I fear for our troops. I fear for all the innocents.
"War is hell." ~William Tecumseh Sherman
My Opinions on the War. I reeeeaaaaally didn't want this war to happen, but I had a feeling it was coming. I just don't support the war at all. I don't think the war is as necessary as Bush makes it out to be. Why is it that we (America) think that it's so necessary to fight, and yet the rest of the world disagrees? If the threat is so great and if we have so much evidence, wouldn't the rest of the world be a little bit more convinced? And really, what's so different now that makes an attack so necessary that hasn't been just as true for all of the last 12 years? I think we're still desperately looking for someone to pound in retaliation for the 9-11 attacks- we just weren't satisfied by Afghanistan.
And I can't help but think that the Bush administration has some ulterior motives in this war, namely oil. Oil and money, money and oil... there's been speculation that part of the reason that France opposes war is cuz of it's oil dealings with Iraq. And one should never forget that Bush is a former oil baron; I'm sure his decisions are at least partially influenced by profits for him and his buddies. But also, doesn't it seem like Bush is simply finishing up "daddy's war"? Completing his dad's unfinished business, settling a family grudge or whatever. And then you've gotta think about the costs of war- the monetary ones in addition to the countless lives. Wars just cost a lot to fight. Our economy is already in the hole, and this would only dig us deeper into debt and deficit. After you go in and rough up a country, it seems that somewhere the rules say you have to help them rebuild. Rebuilding costs probably just as much, if not more than war- time and money. And hey, we're already skimping on our promises to help rebuild Afghanistan. And are we going to end up simply replacing one bad leader with another whose views are slightly more pro-American (as we have in the past)? The US has a pretty shady past, actually- Shah Reza Pahlavi is the one that comes to mind, with the oil and whatnot. International politics are motivated by money.
One thing that bugs me is the hypocrisy of our stance against Iraq. We say the war is necessary cuz we've got a hunch that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction and is playing games with the inspectors. Yet what about North Korea? Here's a country that we know has the capability to produce nukes in the near future and has kicked out the inspectors from their country. They've pulled out of International treaties (non-proliferation and test ban). And they actually have a sophisticated enough knowledge of rocketry to shoot a missile all the way to the United States. You tell me which one seems like a bigger problem. Yet here we are saying that Iraq's gotta go, and we sit and do nothing to North Korea- not even negotiate.
And the whole idea of a "pre-eminent attack" being justified baffles me. I mean, who gets to decide what constitutes a serious enough threat that you should attack first and be a threat towards someone else. I think our move sets a very bad precedent for the start of future wars; wars'll erupt with less warning, just cuz somebody had a "hunch." And also, we basically declared war without UN approval (another bad precedent)- the UN says our war isn't justified, yet we're going ahead nonetheless. I think this move singlehandedly rendered the UN irrelevant; if we can go to war without them saying it's ok, then what's to stop anyone else from doing the same? It may have been true from the start and just needed to be proved, but the UN appears powerless now. To hell with what the world thinks- the US does what it wants. What the US says, goes.
Man, I'm sick of the US always taking the stance of moral superiority; what makes us think we're always the ones in the right? You know, the reason we're the target of terrorism is cuz our foreign policy is so bad. No one wants us in the Middle East, yet we continue to stick our noses in people's business over there, thinking we're some kinda god-chosen referee for things. It reminds me of the Christian missionaries of old trying to convert the Native Americans; geez, no one asked to be "saved." And now the war's gonna cause all sorts of repercussions in international politics. Muslim countries'll hate us more than they do already, and the countries that used to be our allies seem to be turning against us. We're losing credibility on the international scene.
But yea, going back to how Muslim countries hate us, the war is incentive for terrorists to strike- it's just adding fuel to their fire. I think we're gonna see a notable rise in terrorism and anti-American activity cuz of our actions. And I mean, Saddam's obviously not gonna fight us in a straight up war- even he must know we hold the sheer military advantage. So how do you fight to win when you're the underdog? Well, guerilla warfare worked in Vietnam against our troops, and we thought it was cowardly as hell... but the fact remains, it worked. There's all kinds of dirty ways to fight a war. We're limited by the fact that we like to bring our troops home after a conflict; they aren't. I fear for our troops. I fear for all the innocents.
"War is hell." ~William Tecumseh Sherman
posted by Dear Daniel at 5:58 PM
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