To Infamy and Beyond

I saw Condeleeza Rice on the television news responding to the breaking story about the, by now, infamous aluminum tubes. These were, in case you’ve not given a shit, the smoking guns the Bush administration cited as its specific evidence for having launched its preemptive war on Iraq. Condy stood perpendicular to the electric eye and said, straight-faced, that the President had to assume the worst-case scenario when considering the Iraqi threat. Those tubes, in a worst-case scenario, could have been used to build nuclear weapons. Yeah, and I could have gotten an A in French 2, but… OK, Condy, I’ll bite. I agree. When a country goes to war, its leaders should assume the worst-case scenario in hypothesizing potential losses. We’re in a war. The worst-case I can envision is this: our commander-in-chief is leading this great nation to its doom. We could lose horribly. It will take at least fifty years to undo the damage Bush and his cash money millionaires have done. Those, of course, are absolute worst-case scenarios that could come from this country’s present Middle East engagement. At best, those religious militias that hate our guts will incur, en masse, a killer case of amnesia, and forget that they live for our destruction. But of course, that’s wishful thinking. All bull aside, this administration is on the verge of turning Iraq into a Vietnam-sized disaster. Bush wants to accuse Kerry of flip-flopping. Kerry voted to authorize the preemptive strike on the country that has, more than three years after 9/11, yet to be shown to have any affiliation whatsoever to Osama and his jack hole brigade. Now this president, as a purely political tactic, wants to criticize his opponent for having sided with him. Kerry was aligning himself with the popular post 9/11 position. Bush, however, created this position. Politics is disgusting. These candidates have never had to scrape to pay for their car insurance. They’ve never even had to worry about what to wear. Did anyone see The Fabulous Life which showcased their enormous fortunes? It is precisely this wealth that separates these politicians and their peers from the people whom they purport to represent. I do have to admit, though war disgusts me, I find it commendable that Kerry didn’t use his daddy’s connections to avoid Vietnam, while other men his age went off to die. I’m no advocate of appeasement, but adopting the other extreme certainly won’t put an end to subversive terrorism and guerilla warfare. America’s enemy isn’t a nation state. We can’t just go round up all the terrorists. They have no allegiance to a plot of land, but rather a set of ideals. By blowing up people and places that wouldn’t otherwise be involved, America is, in effect, throwing fuel on the fire. Have you ever heard that the measure of insanity is repeating the same action, but expecting a different result? The reason I can’t support Bush is that he, time and again, vows his commitment to “stay the course.” Well, I say, keep shoveling George, but I, for one, don’t want to crawl into that grave with you. At the risk of sounding like Joan Baez, I think we should dump all of our resources into alternative energy. We could simultaneously cut our military losses in the oil-rich Middle East, and effectively break their stranglehold on the world economy. It’s not that Kerry has spelled out such an idealistic alternative, but what he has done is declare his willingness to explore such an avenue. When Bush uses the word “explore,” it’s a euphemism for “drill.” By now, if you haven’t figured out my motive for having written this “alleged” editorial, then you’re probably already committed to voting Bush/Cheney 1984. Honestly, I think Ralph Nader is far more qualified to run this country than the Republicrat candidates, but I’ll save that editorial for High Times. I’m a realist, and I know that as a country, we have to decide between Bush the sequel, and Kerry the beatnik. When you go into the booth on that fateful Tuesday, (which you had damn well better!) ask yourself, has the Bush approach to terrorism curbed the threat to America? Have you seen and read about more or less acts of violence since his presidency began? And most importantly, as the next step after college for so many of us will be to start a family, what kind of world do we want to leave to our children? ~jasonmckenzie