Hunting The Muse

While you are thinking through this, ask if the folks you have in mind have given you specifics about why they support the war, but don't support the reasons behind it. The only possible reason I can even surmise someone saying that is that they want to be supportive of the soilders. I personally don't think that is a good enough reason, if you are anti-war, to all of a sudden be in support of the WAR just because it is now happening...unless information was recieved that has changed your mind. The scenario of being supportive of war, but not the reasons behind it makes no sense to me.

I personally believe that we are doing the right thing. I don't like it. I feel sick when I read about it, hear about it, and watch it on tv, but that doesn't change my mind that in the long-term I think we are doing the necessary thing. I don't want to say the right thing, because right/wrong is very subjective and open to debate. I don't think killing people is the right thing to do, but I also don't think choosing inaction will prevent future harm from happening. It's horrible, yes, I know, but it's survival. That is the law of nature as awful as it sounds. When someone poses a threat, the instinct is to remove the threat. People use logic, emotion, and sometimes force to manipulate someone into submission. Hopefully, non-violent methods are exhausted before force is used.

Sadaam has been talked about as Hitler in the making. Try to imagine that. What if we had stopped Hitler before he was responsible for the death of what...6 million people? Is the evil of Sadaam to a lesser degree, sure, at this time in history, but the fact is that the man is insane and not in his right mind and to let him remain in power with access to weapons of mass destruction is a threat to all of humanity, not just the USA. We had to remove one or the other (Sadaam or WMD), or both, in order to reduce the possible threat. If you don't believe that...then well...I'm not sure you ever will be convinced that us going to war is the right thing to do.

I think protesting the war is a healthy and necessary thing.I think it brings balance and visibility to what we struggle with on a human level. Just because some of us are in support of the war, some of us are in support of the war-but not the reasons(?), and some of us are 100% against war does not mean that we aren't all struggling with the same feelings and emotions..uncertainty, helplessness, outrage, love of peace and humanity. It's just that we all have made a choice, weighing the action or inaction against the consequences and we have decided on a path that makes sense to us based upon our experiences.

When Tamara wrote about her protest experience I was excited for her, for her discovery and the optimism she felt at expressing herself and feeling like she was a part of a bigger movement. I believe that each person can and does make a difference in our world and community when they act. Each in our own way, not always for the same reasons and not always for the same causes.

When I see dead soilders, Americam or Iraqi, on tv, I choke back tears and I think about the loss of life. I think about the fear that soilders on both sides must feel knowing that they may have to take a human life...knowing that many of them will be filled with guilt and terror for the rest of their lives at having to take the life of someone's son, husband, brother, or friend ...something that most of us will never understand. Still, I support the reasons why we have chosen to go to war because I have an image in my mind of what could result if we don't. I know this is a dangerous line we have crossed, because we'll never be able to fully prove the "what if", but...well..I've already stated why we make different choices.

Let me ask this question. If someone told you after years of surveilance that they had evidence, albeit not fully developed, that your relative was going to be murdered in the morning and they had the name and address to that person, would you wait until a murder attempt was made to protect your loved one? I mean, no one is saying you would have to kill the other person, but knowing that if you pro-actively confronted the alleged murderer it could prevent the taking of one and possibly two lives..would you do it? And what about the possibility that the alleged murderer might threaten your life...what would you be willing to do to save your loved one?

Sorry, off a tangent for a moment, but choosing to be supportive or unsupportive of the war has no bearing on what most of us feel. I struggle with my belief that we are doing the necessary thing, but if I didn't struggle with that I would be more concerned because then that would mean that I have lost what it means to be a human being, the capacity to reason and the capacity to feel.

Ack, yet again I am responding quickly without having time to think things through - I used up my brain cells for the night. But quickly:

• Don't use the survival instinct as an explanation for why we are invading Iraq. It falls apart on so many levels. Namely, "survival" and "instinct". We're not directly threatened, this invasion is planned and methodical, this invasion is "pre-emptive", NOT a reaction, and it definitely has nothing to do with laws of nature. Humans have the capacity to examine their emotional impulses for situational validity, even political leaders.
  
• It is good that awareness is being raised about Saddam's badness. It does not mean that war is the only way to keep him from becoming Hitler.
  
• There is still no evidence of Iraq WMD that are intended to be used against America.
  
• Imagining a reason of what could happen if we don't go to war is not reason to go to war.
  
• Yes, I'd definitely call the cops. Has Iraq threatened to come to America and cause violence on our soil? Have they shown the capability? The analogy falls apart. Why not ask me, what if I had flimsy evidence that this guy in Topeka might try and kill my first-born five years from now? I wouldn't go drop a bomb on him.
  
• I'm glad you are struggling with your choices, honestly I am under the impression that many Americans aren't.
  
• As for everyone making their own personal choice about war based off of their experiences... you experience none of the negative effects of your decision to go to war against Iraq.
  

Beyond that I still am not sure how I feel. Rather, I pretty much am but am not sure how to justify it. That'll come later.

I commented to each of your bullets..

There are soo many things to debate, but I take issue with your first bullet point. I disagree that a survival instinct can't involve strategy and long-term planning. I think the degree of threat we believe we face is the real discussion, however, I don't think that most people's minds are going to be changed because that is something that is very subjective.

I agree that war is not the only way to prevent Saddam from becoming the next Hitler. We tried the alternative, it didn't work.

I will wait until a later date to comment on this as we do not know yet whether WMD will be discovered. We do know that he has been using missiles that were not declared against us. I do concede that us not finding WMD would hurt the validation of going to war.

Being futuristic is very important when you are a leader of a country or business or civic group, so is strategy.

Maybe in my analogy there is a key difference that is brought to light between people who think like you and people who think like me. I wouldn't just call the cops, I would show up at the home of the person who was suspected of wanting to cause harm to my family member and I would make it visibly known that I am watching him and that if he hurt my family he should be willing to suffer the consequences, whatever that may be. I would hope that my actions would prevent the possible threat of that person causing harm to my family member.

I struggle with my beliefs. Do you struggle with yours? If you think people aren't struggling, what are you doing to try and understand? I mean that rhetorically. I don't doubt that you personally are absorbing as much perspective as you possibly can in order to wade through what you think and believe.

What do you mean I don't experience any of the negative effects? That is absurd. I understand that by taking this action that my life and the life of others are consequently impacted...now and possibly into the future.

Mental notes... to shift you I'd have to convince you that there were other reasonable alternatives at this point other than killing lots of people. Because you believe that war is the only alternative that is left.

Also, we do not know that he has been using missiles that were not declared against us. As of today there have been no Scuds. Every time there's been reports of a scud there has been a (parenthetical grumpy) retraction days later. And, unlike what you thought before, the al Samoud missiles were declared.

Your "visiting" analogy has no correlation to what we're doing in Iraq. Maybe if you went in and killed him instead of warned him it would.