stark ranting

Shame on you George W. Bush! Tens of thousands will die and the blood will be on your hands, the blame squarely on your shoulders. Why is it that we are right, while the rest of the world (France notwithstanding) is stupid? Why are the Chileans stupid? the Germans? the Mexicans, Russians, Chinese? How alarming it is that in two short years this administration has managed to alienate the U.S. from the international community. The administration has managed to increase the hatred of the U.S. at least three- or four-fold. And not only that, we snub our allies too. How is it that WE are right and everyone else is wrong? We are a political liability for any of our former friends and supporters. Donald "Loose Cannon" Rumsfeld has pissed off so many people that matter - our allies. These are the governments that helped us CRACK AlQaeda for gods sake! Now we thumb our nose at them. And what of our reasons for going to war? Certainly it is not for humanitarian reasons. There are undemocratic and brutal regimes around the world, why pick Iraq above others? Wasn't it a platform of "No Nation Building" that W ran on in 2000? If our motives are so humanitarian and altruistic as to provide underpriveleged people with democracy and capitalism, then that's a tall order. Get real, W. Why else attack? He's a brutal dictator. Not good enough of a reason. He's gassed his own people and attacked his neighbors. Well, the United States government turned a blind eye 15 years ago when he did that. We were on his side when he attacked one of his neighbors - Iran. We gave Iraq billions in agrigultural subsidies, we gave him technology. We taught him how to use the gas. How duplicitous of the current administration! All this talk of attacking neighbors, and gassing his own people - happened 15 years ago. What has happened recently? Nothing. Because containment and inspections were starting to work. Let's talk about containment. Does it work? Imagine for a second if Stalin, at the end of WWII had gotten his hands on nuclear weapons. What then? Oh, wait - he did. And we contained the Soviets. There was no war. Yet, we decided at that time not to launch a preemptive strike. Enough contradictions for you yet? How about Saddam's link to AlQaeda. Is it any accident that 40% of Americans believe that Saddam was behind the 9/11 attacks? Loose Cannon said we had "bulletproof evidence" of the linkage. So where's this evidence? There is NONE. Except for a little teeny tiny link, one unimportant guy, that Colin Powell presented to the UN Security Council (with very little evidence to back that up, by the way). About as far from bulletproof as you can get! So we can't claim that we are going to liberate the Iraqi people - that is discriminatory. We can't say it's because he attacks neighbors and his own people - that is duplicitous. We can't say it's because containment doesn't work - it was working, and has worked elsewhere. Why else should we attack? An imminent thread? Where's the proof? There is no evidence of a nuclear weapons program. The Iraqis are destroying weapons while the North Koreans are building them! So let's take nuclear weapons of mass destruction off the table. That leaves us with chemical and biological weapons. No other reasons exist to attack. Isn't it the goal of UN Weapons Inspectors to determine the threat of chemical and biological weapons? Now what about safety of the U.S.? Recent gallup polls (CNN/USA Today) indicate that only half of Americans believe we will be safer after this war. Western interests will be targeted much more intensely if this war is launched, especially if it is done for no apparent reason and with no global support! And our economy, just struggling to get to its feet, will be knocked back down again by this war. W is going to kill Iraqi citizens, U.S. servicemen and women, U.S. civilians, and the entire U.S. economy. I don't want to get into speculating as to what is W's real motive in the attack... control of oil, lucrative contracts for American businesses to rebuild Iraq, ... that could be the subject of another rant. But it was the conservatives in government that got all over Clinton when we sent that cruise missile attack, claiming it was a diversion to keep people away from the "real issue": the Monica Lewinsky affair. Get real. Our economy needs help, and a totally unjustified war that is immoral and will put us at odds with even our closest international allies, is about the biggest diversion I can think of.

Wow, that was a first-class rant. Kudos! (Right on the money I might add.)

Thanks man. It felt good just to get it out. Very cathartic. This whole thing, though, has galvanized me: I've called my senators and representatives, and even left a comment on the White House comment line. Not that it will help any, but it makes me feel better, and that I'm doing even a miniscule part:

No snowflake ever believes it is the one that caused the avalanche.