Lost for words

I feel so tired. The bombs are finally falling, and this disturbing process, the daily twists and turns, the optimistic hopes against the backdrop of inevitability, the measured rhetoric and passion on both sides, have come to a crashing halt. I am now being asked to ‘support our troops’ - but they are not mine in any way other than the taxes I have paid to fund them. They are enacting a policy that I believe is deeply flawed, and are responsible on an individual level for those they kill. They are doing their job, but ‘their job’ is to kill people - Why should I value the life of a British soldier more than the Iraqi conscript he is being paid in cash to kill?

I am not a pacifist[1], but this process of lies and deciet - the facts (propaganda) shown to be desperately fabricated - threats shown to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors, and the outright stupidity of many of Bush’s statements (and ever-changing goals) make this a deeply depressing and sad time. I have thought deeply on some of the more cogent arguments for War, and some have been/are worth considering . But the overall balance is so stacked by the transparent arrogance and mal-intent of Bush and his Boys, that this war can only be seen in the sick light cast by the chickenhawks running the show. They don’t give a shit about ‘liberation’, about ‘freedom’ , about ‘democracy’^[2]. They do care about total geo-political control

I hope those opposed to this war can gather their energy to make our opposition known. There are so many questions remaining. The issue of the Kurds and Turkey, the length Iraqis will hold out, whether the US will target Civilian installations like water processing as they did so callously did Gulf War MkI. Here is a report today suggesting that the US intelligence services fed misleading information to the weapons inspectors - one more small stone in the wall of belligerence and utter contempt the US administration built over the diplomatic process.


[1] Well, not intellectually anyway - emotionally however I find it almost impossible to become ‘violent’ - I can’t hit another human being even if I may think it would be the right thing to do. Of course given a desperate enough situation I’m sure I could be pushed.
[2] e.g. Kurds in Turkey, Palestinians in the occupied territories, using allies such as Kuwait & Saudi Arabia etc. etc. etc.

Posted by Ian at March 20, 2003 10:58 AM | TrackBack §