insomnomaniac

What's really left to say?

Where have I been you might wonder? Yeah, I've been wondering myself. I've wanted to blog, but lately my energy level is so damn low that I just don't have the heart for it.

Part of me wants to capture the sound of relief in print, but how? I'm just glad the so-called "diplomacy" is over, and the always inevitable is imminent. It was getting tiresome waiting for the dance to end.

It seems like everything that can be said about the conflict in Iraq has been said, and the rest is just conjecture at this point. I do hope people will stop speculating and start reporting the news, but I don't hold out much hope. I'm sure the next 24 hours will bring more drawing on maps and "war plan" predictions from retired generals and other talking heads, as well as last-minute attention-seeking attempts from anti-war loons to sabotage the war effort. I just don't care anymore.

What cracks me up most is that these people honestly believe that they haven't been heard simply because they didn't get the outcome they wanted! It's a testament to the kind of MEMEME society we've wrought that people would draw such a conclusion, but there you have it. When our supposedly prestigious Universities (like Harvard) graduate 80% of the class with Honors, and the only criteria is signing up to graduate with honors, what do we expect? We've spent so much energy working for equal outcomes that people have this expectation that not getting what they want equals discrimination of some kind.

All I can say is, when did they actually make an argument? If they did, I didn't hear one! Sure, we heard all the supposed reasons war was bad, and Bush was bad, and it was all about oil or the Jews or some shit, but what I never heard was a good argument for leaving Saddam in power! Never heard it! I heard all about letting inspectors do their job (why this admonishment was directed at anyone other than Saddam baffled me, but so be it), and I heard all about the innocents who would die if we went to war, but I never heard any talk about how many of them would die if we didn't go to war--if we left this monster in power. And after all, wouldn't disarming Saddam by inspections alone have exactly that result (assuming it could work, which pretty much denies reality by itself)?

Nope, all I heard were platitudes, uttered by people who insisted in the same breath that Bush was the absolutist at the party. Bush disturbed them with his sense of "certainty," and they couldn't understand why he didn't see the shades of gray. Yet oddly, these same folks demanded ONE CLEAR REASON to go to war with Saddam, when in truth, there were so many, who could name them all? Does it really matter whether it's to disarm him or to free his people, if both would result from the same action? Does it really matter if American oil companies benefit in some way if Iraqis do as well? Does it matter if there are other bad guys on the planet if we decide to prioritize and take out the one who has so flagrantly ignored the will of the free world for the longest period of time first? Does it matter that taking him out benefits Israel, when Israel is our ally? Why must it be either or? Why not all of the above, and then some?

I never got answers to these and any other questions. Instead I got:
- Bush is ignoring the American people
- Bush is a terrorist
- Saddam is a bad man, but he hasn't done anything to US
- The UN doesn't want it
- Inspections work (and pigs fly)
- Bush is illegitimate
- N. Korea is a bigger threat
- Containment works (worked so well with the Taliban, didn't it?)
- It's all about oil (and so what if it were? Do you use electricity or drive?)
- It will be expensive (but sitting around in the desert all summer is what, FREE?)
- Saddam has no links to Al Qaeda/9/11 (but he does have links to Hamas, not much of a stretch after that)
- Did we mention that the UN doesn't want it? (You mean like they didn't want us to go get Milosovic?)

In other words, no argument was made, so what was to ignore?

In any case, it will be very interesting to see what comes next. France is now saying that if Saddam uses WMD, they'll join in to help us. I'm laughing so hard I could pee in my pants! So, if he uses the WMD they swear he doesn't have, they'll jump on board to help us? How ironic it would be if he read this to mean that in not using them, he will keep the French on his side! Either way, we win! What a bunch of flaming weasels to the last.

My Dad wants a bumper sticker made that says "Peaceniks enabled the deaths of 6-Mil Jews" and I want one too. I want to remind these people that millions of people CAN be wrong. Just ask the millions who thought Hitler was a god, or that Hirohito was a god, or that Stalin was a god, or that Pol Pot was a god, or that Mao was a god, need I go on? Millions are wrong ALL THE TIME. Sheer numbers don't inherently mean a goddamn thing. And how ironic that the same people who argue that there is no arbitrary "right" or "wrong" will yell at you in the next moment that they are right by virtue of something as arbitrary and objective as MATH!

Yes, these millions (if there even are that many) are wrong, and will be proven so soon enough. I can only hope it's soon enough that the Democratic candidates are all turned into dust in the wind--Howard Dean especially--because I know that it will take more than 2 years to secure a peace in the Middle East, and--call me crazy--but I like to see people finish what they start. I don't think we should be going through a transition during such turbulent times.

But, knowing the protesters, they'll forget all about the Iraqis in a few months and will go back to whining about how their money doesn't buy as many lattes as it used to, and--predictably--will blame Bush for it.

So now I have something new to worry about. Oh joy.

Posted by insomnomaniac at March 18, 2003 7:15 PM | TrackBack