Despite the fact that the majority of the world, and indeed half of our own citizens, thinks that attacking Iraq is a bad idea, the US did it anyway. It's a very sad day in the world.
Sad, because the cowboy in office holds no regard for real truths or the opinion of our worldly neighbors. We never got any proof that Iraq has "weapons of mass-destruction," and aside from a couple of missiles, weapons inspectors found little to worry about. More to the point, they certainly never found anything dangerous to the US.
It's not an issue of terrorism either, as the administration would like us to believe. No connection has been found between Iraq and the people who attacked the US. Making that connection, unsubstantiated as it is, is little more than an emotional ploy.
The administration has also tried to make it an issue of civil rights, but why is Iraq different from countless other states where human rights are ignored? Why is it OK to ignore these issues in one place but not in Iraq? Just a stab in the dark, but I'm going to guess it has something to do with black liquid that comes from underground.
This will all end badly. The burden of proof is on us. When we're done with this, we'll need to prove that Saddam had the weapons we said he did. We'll have to justify the inevitable deaths of Iraqi civilians and our own troops.
Perhaps the worst consequence is that Americans will, more than ever, be disliked by other nations and their people, making us a bigger target for terrorism. It's irresponsible for us to not consider why anyone would kill thousands of people in NYC in the first place, to not wonder how anyone would hate us so much. Our government has become arrogant and no longer needs compelling reasons to force regime change or to topple a government. Is it really our call?
Lots of hard questions to answer. I hope it's over quick, and I hope that Cowboy Bush has one hell of an international public relations team waiting to fix our reputation. With all of the press in the field with our military this time around, we'll likely see a lot more of this.
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