Thursday, February 20, 2003

"To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice." That quote is from the Chinese philosopher Confucius. And while Saddam Hussein plays his three card monte game with the U.N. "inspectors" (who probably couldn't find their collective asses if they used their collective hands) the debate rages on in this country over what we should or shouldn't do. As we get chronologically further and further from the events of September 11, 2001 I have to ask myself if we Americans aren't becoming more and more anesthetized to those events. Has our attention span become so short that we can't even follow an NBA fast break from start to finish any more? I was listening to Tom Ridge the other day talk about us all making preparations for possible disasters to come. I started to think back to my days in grade school. I can still remember the air-raid drills we used to do. How we learned to "duck and cover." I remember assembling under the stairway in school by the yellow fallout shelter sign. So this is what we've come to again. And why is that? Because for the eight or so years before 9/11 we were asleep at the wheel. We were so content with drinking our venti lattes and watching as entertainment a murderer go free and our commander-in-chief use an intern as some kind of bio-humidor, that we lost any sense of our responsibility as a nation in this "New World Order." Instead, it was "let the good times roll." And they did. Now it's time to pay the check. I'm not saying that we are the world's policeman. Believe me; I went through high school wondering if I would end up face down in some rice paddy in Southeast Asia. But it clearly appears that we are the world's designated driver. 9/11 should have been a wake up call. That was just what three hijacked planes could do. God knows what the fourth would've done if the brave passengers hadn't commandeered the plane away from those murderers. What do you think those responsible for that horror would have done if they had access to nuclear weapons? Do you think that they would have given it a second thought before nuking New York if they could? Or Hollywood? (thank you Ms. Sarandon and Ms. Streisand, now shut the fuck up). Yet there are those in this country who would rather give the benefit of the doubt to a brutal dictator rather than our own President (and hey, I grew up during Watergate and always distrusted the government). We would be making the same mistake Chamberlain made when he got out of that railway car after handing Hitler an open invitation to begin the closest thing to Armageddon that we have seen so far. "Peace in our time." That's what he said. It wasn't long thereafter that Hitler did more than just "flip us the bird." He became the greatest mass murderer in the history of the world (sorry folks, the Holocaust really did happen, whether you'd like to revise history or not). Indecisiveness at the end of World War I created him and hesitancy to deal with him when he militarized allowed him to flourish. It then took decisive action and the willingness on our part to pay any price to lead to a long term solution. And at what cost. How many of our allied troops and how many Germans had to die to insure a regime change that led to sweeping changes that transformed Western Europe. Otherwise, the only "European Union" would have been marching the goose-step in jackboots. Now people say that Saddam Hussein is not Hitler. Well, neither was Hitler when he started out. Do you really think that if he was allowed to develop a nuclear capability that he wouldn't hesitate to use it? And don't tell me that we shouldn't talk when we are the only nation to have actually used nuclear weapons in a war. What nation in the recorded history of the world with our might and military power would have acted in as restrained a fashion as we did after 9/11? None, zero, zip, nada. There are people in this world who simply hate us. Why? They hate what we have taken for granted for 227 years -- a democratically elected government. They hate our liberty, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and our freedom to disagree with each other. Their way of thinking is as alien to us as if they came from the other side of the galaxy. These people cannot exist in a world that does not have rogue states who support terrorism. They cannot exist without vast areas which aren't nations, but merely pockets of chaos. They can't exist unless we ignore them and those who give them aid and comfort. They won't go away and they won't stop hating us no matter what we do or do not do. In 1998 Osama Bin Laden declared that every American, civilian or military, adult or child, richly deserves to die. Our enemies don't hate us for what we do; they hate us for who we are. We are in a battle for our very civilization. Saddam Hussein has murdered his own citizens with poison gas. In the Gulf War, he lobbed missiles at a country that was not at war with him. If allowed to develop the ability, he would emulate Hitler by killing every Israeli. Let's not kid ourselves. The only question now is do we have the guts my parent's generation had. Or, do we feel we will be too inconvenienced as we take our Segways over to the local Starbucks for some "Free Trade" coffee. Hey, I have a family member who is "in harm's way" right now, so I'm not being flip. The next wake up call won't be as gentle as the last one. It's gut check time. "Is it in you? Does it show?"   9:40:19 PM    Go Ahead, make my day  []

The Gathering Storm There are some strong opinions both ways on the possible, or should I say inevitable, war with Iraq. Just look here and here for examples of both ends of the spectrum. I'm still consolidating my thoughts. Maybe I'll post them here in the next couple of days. I'll say this right now: we left ourselves a lot of unfinished business to deal with. 1:06:03 AM    Go Ahead, make my day  []