Hmmmm. I've been wondering... did Osama bin Laden wake up one morning and say, "I hate freedom! Let's bomb the USA!" Oh, sorry... this must be a conscious and unanimous decision by Islamic fundamentalists that America is evil because we drive fast cars and watch TV. We're the great Satan because of the way we live! That must be it! And now we have been baselessly attacked and must respond! What was it someone said? That we have a right and responsibility to to exact vengeance?
Whoah, hold up! The above, of course, is roadkill. The attacks were initiated against this country as an act of vengeance, not senseless evil. Not to say that they weren't senseless evil, but there was definitely a reason for them. But instead of facing that we Americans have a "great track record" of being amazinhunks in the middle east (not to say that many of the governments and oil producers, etc, in the Middle East are prizes at all) we've decided that the way to deal with this is military strikes. Because that way we don't have to face the fact that we may (gasp!) be doing something wrong!
Of course, striking like this will do no good whatsoever. Then again, neither will not striking. Wonderful job we've done of getting ourselves into this hideous Catch 22 situation here, isn't it? It goes way back, too. I don't think it's worthwhile to respond to the ignorant statements about how the only appropriate response to this is to attack the responsible parties. Of course, given that we are responsible in good part ourselves - hey, it takes two to tango - we might as well start bombing DC as well. It might eliminate the other half of the problem. Then again, given the mostly universal notion among those supporting this war that the US does not need to take responsibility for anything and doesn't need to change, hell, even to consider changing its Middle East foreign policy, I don't see this as too likely.
Now, on to my next target, eh? Collateral damage is a good one. I'll be concise - no deaths are acceptable. Call me weak-hearted if you like, but it won't change anything. It's very easy to say something like, "Well, war is rough, but civilian casualties happen. It's sad, but it's war." I don't understand this. Why is something acceptable on a scale such as this, when on an individual and personal scale it is not? How can death be unacceptable on an individual level, yet not seriously consequencial on a more universal level? We reduce these things to numbers, to "acceptable collateral damage" levels, because that takes the humanity out of it. A death becomes a number. A number doesn't hurt, unless it's a large one. But to those affected by it, it hurts. It hurts, and we know that it does, because pretty much everyone has been touched by death in some way. And because they hurt, and because they know that the hurt is because of someone else, they hate. And then more people will get hurt. The personal is as important on the universal level as anything that starts universally. Ever drop a tiny stone in water? Of course you have. You can see that the ripples spread an amazing distance across the surface of the water.
But we can take it beyond death, and remove from that level, because then we don't need to really know that we are killing someone. We drop the bomb, and come home. When we return, we add another few tallies to the list. It's not hard, really. They're just marks. Harmless. It's not like we're stacking bodies, putting them in bags, sending them off to their relatives with a little note, "We offer our sincere condolences." And so we can just put marks on paper, say it is sad but unavoidable, and move on. No problem. Not on a personal level, at least. But it does get felt universally.
When we were attacked in NYC, we felt it, because we were all right there. We saw the people jumping out of the windows, and we felt their deaths very keenly. We desire revenge, justice, action. I desire them too, but I remember the footage of terrified people running from the Collapsing WTC towers. It's not too hard to imagine that the people that are running are Afghanis, and that they are running from a missile strike. I see someone jumping from the WTC Tower, and I think, "Dear God, he had a family, and they had him, but now neither has the other." I see footage of people dead, dying, or suffering and I think the same thing. It hurts just as much no matter where they are from, because it is NOT "tragic but necessary," it is tragic, and there is nothing else to it, because tragedy is never necessary or acceptable.
We're stuck now, though. People are going to die, and all we can die is try to get as personal as possible and wait for bombs to stop flying. I certainly hope I can do something to help. I would find it hard to forgive myself if I did nothing.
We just got bitten in the bellybutton by karma, big time. Let's hope that we don't let as much go around this time, because I don't want anything like this to come around, ever again.
Sorry for the long post.
-ispar
