Thoughts on events, music, books and the whole enchilada of my human experience

  Friends, these are disturbing times. I consider myself a patriot and value my position as a citizen of the United States of America, but the last few weeks trouble me greatly. We started a war. We declared war and invaded a country. There was no Pearl Harbor, invasion of Kuwait or 9-11 to justify this. We massed together an army of 300,000 soldiers, surrounded Iraq and preceded over the last few days to wreak massive damage and kill many people. We did this. We must own up to it.

Why not call this "pre-emptive strike" what it is -- an invasion of a sovereign state?

I don't buy for a second that there was a pressing need for Hussein to be removed right now. No evidence was presented to us that would indicate anything of the sort. No evidence of any weapons even remotely threatening to the United States was discovered in Iraq. What, those missiles that could go 20 miles farther than they should have would have magically flown hundreds of miles further to hit me here in Massachusetts? Oh, please. I'm sure every warmongering state ever has used the excuse that the victims posed some sort of threat to national security. I really just can't believe this.

And don't get me started on the fact that the only country ever to drop nuclear weapons on another country is getting in a pretty high horse about weapons that "may" or "certainly will" be developed. We dropped two bombs that killed many citizens in Japan. Not soldiers -- citizens. Before I receive angry comments that we couldn't have known how much damage would be wrought by nuclear bombs, can I point out that we dropped the second one three days after the first? The hypocrisy in denunciations of "weapons of mass destruction" is apparent -- we own tons of them, intend to keep on owning tons of them, so it's important that none of these other countries catch up. We have used them and we want to reserve the right to use them again -- preferably against countries like Iraq that have no chance of fighting back.

As much as we denounce the "Axis of Evil", we must remember: every Iraqi life is just as precious as every American life. Every Iraqi life is as precious as the unborn lives that conservatives crusade on behalf of. God does not love our citizens more than theirs. Whether we are fighting and killing in Iraq or simply paying taxes that will enable others to fight and kill in Iraq, the blood of the innocents is on all of our hands. Every citizen of the United States, whether pro-war or anti-war, is responsible for every life taken by an American soldier overseas. We support the system. We choose the leaders that run it, we pay the taxes that continue it.

We are warmongers and we will probably be conquerors. But don't expect me to be happy about it.

posted by Jon at 12:50 PM