I hate to get into this, but repeat after me. We do not want to go to war.
This article by Molly Ivins scares the shit out of me. The only president we have is trying like hell to send other people's kids off to fight a useless war, potentially many of them.
The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood.
By broadcasting to the world this new imperial doctrine -- i.e., we will allow no nation to acquire the power we possess, and we reserve the right to strike hostile nations that build the kind of weapons we possess -- President Bush has drawn a line in the sand for every anti-American regime on earth and dared them to cross it. Either he is bluffing, or we are headed for endless confrontations and constant wars.
On a different note, a book my dad wrote on street design has been converted into a PDF and made available for download without his knowledge. It's a document he finished a few years ago, and just found out that some fool posted it online. Thanks a lot. I wonder how many people have been using it without having any idea where it came from, or to whom they can go for more information.
I must confess to having tried to stay blissfully ignorant of this Bush-Iraq business -- which is to say, I've been reading the news on it occasionally, but mostly I've been hoping cooler heads will prevail. That's still my hope, actually.
Having recently read In Retrospect (see Literary Conquests), U.S. policy in Vietnam is still fresh in my mind. One of the major mistakes made was that the Executive branch went ahead with an ill-thought-out plan, in part because Congress had granted them power to act at their discretion. Of course, when only a select few brains are picking at a problem, and those brains were hand-picked by the President, and nobody wants to fall into disfavor because they could be dropped like a hot poker, the bigger picture is not going to be looked at . Add a few hundred heads (Congress), and hopefully a more realisitic policy will emerge.
So my greatest hopes are that, first, Congress will not let any Bush-power-granting resolution that is remotely vague to slip through; and, second, that Congress will remember that more than American so-called pride is at stake. Likewise, I hope that the U.N. will stand firm on not approving U.S. military action without considerably more dire provocation.
Posted by Lisa at September 27, 2002 8:39 AM