Lost

loss

An Iraq boy cries as family members take the body of their mother for burial from the hospital mortuary in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Sept. 13, 2006. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

I've never been particularly outspoken about politics, mainly because I think it's pointless to argue with someone whose opinions differ from my own. Like I'm going to convince anyone of anything? Also, my political opinions get emotional quickly and I'm not armed with the kinds of facts and figures necessary to become embroiled in a discussion of the intricacies of policy, even when it directly impacts myself.

bring the boys back home

But lately, as the war drags on with no end in sight, my dreams of apocalypse and visions of fire in the tunnels of the city have become untenable.

Bush continues to lie to us and he should not be president.

Gay people should be equal citizens in every respect.

The environment and our dependence on oil need to be addressed urgently.

Our personal freedoms cannot be curtailed as a reaction to terrorism.

Religion should not be considered a legislative force.

We should not have gotten involved in Iraq, and I want to hear a plan for disengagement immediately.

hot draft dodger

I wouldn't call myself a Liberal or a Pacifist. If anything, I'm Libertarian, with an emphasis on personal responsibility, with a touch of pernicious Nihilism. We are a violent animal who must learn to understand peace. I value peace, but I do not shy from conflict. I believe there can be good reasons for fighting, good reasons for war.

Helping a country overthrow a dictator and rise toward freedom would be a good reason for war.

If they'd invited us.

Or if minding our own business became more of an atrocity than getting involved.

But this was our administration's brilliant idea, to be the world police, the global busybody, with a insidious agenda of our own. I understand this agenda: to protect the flow of oil, to gain a foothold of democracy in a volatile area, to bolster the borders of Israel, to strike a blow against Islamic fundamentalist hegemony.

not a video game

All these reasons define Imperialism at its most ideological.

You cannot bully any people into believing your ideology.

Especially at gunpoint.

Especially when Bush believes in his own faction of fundamentalism.

forgive me, Father

I want this War of the Radicals to end. I want moderation, sanity, discourse, and the politesse of interpersonal politics to rise again.

A young boy's mother dies in the war's violence and instantly he hates America with such passion that with only a little pushing a new terrorist is created. A country of children poisoned with hate, dreaming of revenge.

No, I don't feel safer because of this war. We have marked ourselves as the enemy. Believing in the existence of pure evil only pushes oneself to a similar, not opposite, extreme.

lost to us

After such tragedy, it would take more forgiveness than I could muster to ever again call us friend.

My question is this: Have we already lost?

I can't see how the outrage of further occupation is the answer.