Anniversary

Today is the 4th anniversary of the war in Iraq. I know I don’t usually wax political mostly because I don’t have the time to spout on that soapbox—I’m too busy on my mommy soapbox. Believe it or not, I do have some pretty strong opinions about things political. I live in a “blue state” and would say most of my views fall generally in line with that and pretty much always have. Yes, I’m a liberal, at least by American standards. (That’s practically a dirty word in some places.) Really, I could be a Republican if the Republicans were actually following their own manifesto, but they aren’t and so I’m not. I am registered Democrat for what it’s worth, but there’s a lot I don’t agree with on their front too. I only registered Democrat so I could have a vote in the primary elections. I feel our current administration has become a “runaway government”, I keep waiting for Bush to declare Divine Right, since he pretty much did already to get into office in the first place. (Yes, Gore won that election, I don’t want to argue about it, there’s no point now, but he did beat Bush. The numbers don’t lie; hanging chads and all.) I think our country has taken a tremendous step backward in terms of civil rights and it depresses me to think about it too much, so I don’t. And that’s a large part of the problem; most American’s seem to be like me; they aren’t happy about things, but we don’t know how to go about making an effective change, so we ignore it and hope it’ll work itself out. I suppose that’s ok except there’s this war thing. People die as a result of war and that does more then just suck eggs. I’m not sure what the answer is on all of this, I do know this; Bush created a big mess and once again will leave it for someone else to clean up.

I am one of that 30% (yeah, over here, that’s us) who was opposed to the war from the beginning and never wavered in my feelings. I didn’t care if Saddam had WMDs (if he did we gave them to him, I mean we put him in power and are you familiar with Iran-Contra? We’re assholes like that.) And I never bought into the whole Saddam as part of the 9/11 plot—I’m in PR, I understand spin and I could see (anyone w/half a brain could’ve) through the spin-doctor’s message that was being presented to us.

I was against the war because I don’t think it’s ok to invade another country unprovoked. I wasn’t happy about the first Iraq war, but I (sort of) understood it. This one was all about Bush’s oil cronies and anyone could see that. And our troops are paying the price for that—it’s not right. I support the efforts of our troops, but I think they’re being used inappropriately. There are other causes in this world that are worth dying over before this one (see –Darfur). It breaks my heart to think about the lives lost/altered over this and the affect this kind of effort in other areas of the world could do that would be so much more positive.

One of the things that bugs me the most about all of this is how history will look back on it. The history books will indicate that public opinion was for the war at the time it was started. Well my husband and I were not part of that public opinion. I want my kids to know how we felt about these things when they were happening and why we felt that way. I think it’s important. History may dictate that this was the right thing to do. In the end the Middle East may become more stable (not likely) and more lives may be saved ultimately. If that’s the case then bully for us, but I doubt it will be. I was pregnant (and hormonal) with TS when the war started. I realized a lot of these things then and I wrote a letter to my unborn child about how we felt about these things and why. It’s in her baby box w/her first cards, and hospital bracelet. I want her (and now BS) to understand that we don’t think it’s ok to be a bully or to dictate what other cultures should do. Saddam was a bad person and we may have done the right thing, but for the wrong reasons, and that doesn’t make it ok. It’s apparent now that this action wasn’t thought through, partly because those making the decisions didn’t understand the culture in the country they were invading.

Sometime I wonder what kind of a world we’re leaving to our children. I would like to think I’m doing things to make the world a better place, but as with most American’s I would say I’m mostly not sure what to do and I’m waiting for someone to tell me. Do you have any answers?