Andrea's Adventures in Binkyland

On War

Since the media has worked itself into a euphoric frenzy, and since there is so much I have to say on the topic, I thought I would say a few very choice words on this war we find ourselves in.

First off: Congress has not passed an Articles of War declaration, nor have they been asked to. This is not, technically, a war. Nonetheless, real people are really dying. This quibble says very little about our current situation, but it says a whole lot about what's become of our Constitution over the last few decades.

I did not support this invasion. There were too many obstacles. We could not get agreement from the United Nations, we could not conclusively prove that Iraq had those notorious Weapons of Mass Destruction we kept hearing about, and our national budget, already in a deficit, simply cannot support the added cost of this nasty little affair.

Neither am I now protesting the war. The die is cast, the Rubicon is crossed. We can't go back, now. The one good thing that might come of this is that the Iraqi people may be freed. There are some problems with that, too, but if we're very lucky, the U.N. will handle the reconstruction for us. We're no good at nation-building, anyhow. (At least not since the early 1940s.) If, as some protestors want, we pulled out of Iraq now, the country would be left poorer than ever, our international reputation will be left irreparably damaged (if it isn't, now!) and the people of Iraq will still not be free.

At this point, we have no choice but to follow through. It's the right thing to do, considering the choices we have already made.

I am ashamed at the behavior of our media, however. Our reporters are covering this grave series of events with the enthusiasm you might find more commonly along with the SuperBowl. I half-expect to see a green line tracing along in the video footage to show me where the missiles are. I keep waiting for the score to pop up in the corner of the screen, and the clock, so that I know how much time is left.

Is there not an introvert among them? Every soldier fighting on either side is somebody's child or parent or friend, or all of these. I rock my daughter to sleep at night, and I think there must be a family just like mine in Iraq, who are sitting in a bomb shelter, sleeping during the day because the night and its explosions and terror are not made for rest. They are waiting, helplessly, to find out if the everyday fear of the last thirty years will continue, or if the Americans will follow through and put in an equally hatable puppet government. They are waiting for the day that the power grid goes out, the water supply is tainted with cholera and typhus, every home and shop is looted for a scrap of food in an already starving nation.

President Bush says diplomacy has failed. Indeed, diplomacy has failed. It has failed every Marine who dies patrolling an oil field. It has failed the family of every serviceman whose family is now glued to CNN, balanced on the razor's edge of wishing and hoping to see their loved one on air, but please, God, let it be while he's alive. It has failed every Iraqi child who dies because even a week's disruption in food aid meant the difference between life and starvation. It has failed every terrified citizen of Iraq who has labored under an unjust government, and who must now endure the destruction of his homeland because of it. It has failed the French, the Germans, the Canadians, who thought the United States was a respectful part of the international community, and not just the biggest bully on the playground. It has failed every single one of us.

My kitchen is: Sparkling, neat, and smelling of lemons. When the world is spinning madly around us, we must tighten the reins of control over our own lives.

Posted by andrea at March 23, 2003 08:27 PM