<<Your post could have been written by me 25 years ago!>>
I would guess, pezz, that I am probably about 25 years older than you are now. (Oh, well, 15 at least.) So, perhaps in time you will move towards your grandfather's position.
Interestingly enough, when broken down by age polls show that the most "radical" age groups are the over 60's, and the 18-30 year olds. It's all you folks stuck in the middle loading up on stock & houses & cars & children that get stodgy. <gg>
Now, to be perfectly serious. I have not followed the Iraq issue closely enough to speak authoritatively about the various policy options that were/are open to the Administration. However, I have seen war up close (as a journalist), and I don't like it at all. I don't like what it does to ordinary citizens. I have also seen what embargoes do to them, and I don't like embargoes either. (I admit this is not a "reasoned" position, but rather a gut feeling.)
Exposure to this sort of thing has also made me distrustful of the kind of ritual cant that State Department types habitually engage in. They get these little "paradigms" stuck in their heads, which tend to drift further and further away from real life. On top of that, as Americans, they are exposed to the ever-present temptation to "show 'em who's top dog." In fact, they have convinced themselves that the world wants us to show that we are top dog.
"Ordinary citizens" in this country are not immune to the temptation, either. What really struck me during the Hostage Crisis in Iran was the fact that people here were amazed and humiliated that Americans should have been taken hostage. Okay -- take Italians hostage; take Ghanians hostage; take Indonesians hostage. But Americans? How can that be? I mean it's like the tourist who exclaims: "What's the matter with these people? Why can't they speak English?"
I have another problem where Iraq is concerned, and that is that Bush had the power, the forces, the international support, to finish the job (i.e., to finish off Saddam Hussein). He chose not to, and so the Saddam issue has festered ever since. The major losers in all this have been the Iraqi people, not Saddam. Personally, I am not sure what we can/should do, at this point. And even if I were -- who would listen to me? <gg>
jbe |
