The View From the Hill
March 17th, 2003 • Introspection
What is there even to say? I watched Bush’s speech tonight and it sounds like we’re pretty definitely going to war. I haven’t previously discussed my views about the war on here because I don’t feel like they’re all that well thought out. Here are excerpts from the jumble that is my mind tonight:
After I went to the weight room, I went up on the hill and as I looked out on the city, I wondered how many views like that would be destroyed by our… arrogance? anger? fear? pride? Whatever it is that makes people want to kill other people.
And another thought… does god intervene and answer prayers? If not, we’re left to answer each others’ prayers. Regardless of that, it looks like we’re going to answer the prayers of the Iraqi people with bombs, and given our track record, I doubt that all our bombs will indeed hit military targets, but even then… I have trouble with the ends justifying the means.
I’m not going to say that Saddam is not an evil man, because I’m sure he is. However, there have been evil men in the past that the US has supported and even put into power. I guess I’m a little too cynical to believe that we are going to war entirely for the good of the Iraqi people and our own protection. I think it has something to do with creating a quick and seemingly easy solution to a much too complicated problem. While I’m sure it’s impossible to resolve all animosity against the US, even beginning to address it would take looking at world politics in an entirely more justice-oriented way… maybe even a bit of that "love your enemies" stuff?
::sigh:: Like I said, my mind is a whole mess of thoughts and frustrations. I want to cry and yell and run away and love people and be angry all at once. So I’m trying to lose myself in Sigur Rós…
And maybe this entry will piss some people off because I’m not supporting the war and what they see as the obvious course of action. If I’m an idiot for these views, so be it. It’s what I feel.
♫ Sigur Rós - Untitled 4
Follow this discussion
Abbey
March 18th, 2003 at 8:53 am
I don't know if I agree with Bush or not. I have fleeting moments of both ends. All I know, is that living on the east coast, I'm scared. May God have mercy on our nation and forgive us our pride and ignorance.
Spread love.
I love you.
I love my mommy.
I love plastic action figures.
James
March 18th, 2003 at 9:52 am
Hey man… you're in my prayers. I know a lot of people who feel that way, and truth is, I don't know enough about the whole war thing to really make a call. But regardless, it's all in God's hands. And I do believe that God answers our prayers… In his passage that says "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few", he urges us to pray to the lord of the harvest to send workers. I think that if our prayer effects the Lord himself… they definately will effect each other. God bless you man.
Jeremiah
March 20th, 2003 at 2:37 am
The US is fighting Saddam, not the people of Iraq. Saddam agreed to disarm after the Persian Gulf War. He threw out the UN weapons inspectors (whose job was to inspect Iraq's disarming — not play hide-and-go-seek for weapons). Powell presented overwhelming evidence to the UN that Iraq has been arming itself with biological weapons — and testing them on innocent civilians jailed for petty crimes — since the UN inspectors were blocked. Saddam has had over 12 years to comply and diplomacy has yet to produce any action from Saddam.
To address the US and its relationship to dictators: Yes, in hindsight, the US did aid a few leaders who were harmful — but none to the extent of the threat we face today. Also, you must consider how our "unhold alliances" with these leaders were beneficial in each time frame.
Saddam is an evil man, as you stated. He kills his own people with weapons that he is developing for use against us. He is the one who has placed his military among civilians in attempt to overwhelm our moral standard of respecting life, which he does not have beyond his own interest. His people starve while he continues to spend millions in building palaces for himself and weapons to destroy us, Israel. I cannot love an enemy who threatens the innocent life of his own people and those halfway around the world.
War is never welcomed. War is hell.
Innocent lives will be lost. Our action now will stop the innocent lives already being taken by Saddam's torture experiements on those who simply desire to have the freedom that Americans enjoy and take for granted. Saddam must be removed from power before the cost of removing him costs even more lives — in Iraq and in the US.
The US's interest is pure. This has nothing to do with oil. Move beyond the unrealistic peace protestors. I only wish those protestors were as passionate about the millions of people dying under Saddam's rule as they are about the US's military action on Saddam.
You know where I stand and I prefer to give the benefit of my doubt to President George W. Bush than murdering dictator Saddam.
My initial feelings were against military action. My own search for facts leaves me no other option but to desire liberation for the people of Iraq and to have the foresight to see how Saddam's extremist views will ultimately hurt more than his own people.
Finally, yes, God does answer prayer. All things work together for good, to God's master plan. Nothing happens to the surprise of God. My life is living proof.
Rianna
March 20th, 2003 at 2:50 am
Wow, your post addresses so many things directly and indirectly that to comment, wow. I don't even know where to begin!
The third paragraph intrigues me the most. There are a LOT of interesting statements there. First, the notion that we could not and would not hit military targets seems a bit confusing to me. We have satellites that can zero in on one man walking a street with a cigarette in his hand. That satellite can identify the man, AND what kind of cigarette he's smoking! It's ludicrous to think that we would not be ABLE to hit military targets. If we INTENTIONALLY hit civilian targets, our entire war campaign would collapse, which would be economic and diplomtic suicide. Secondly, God uses His Providence to answer prayers. His Providence is how He weaves Himself in and out of the tapestry of our history. Who is to say that God will not use this country to protect innocent people's freedoms that they were pre-ordained to have? We have a moral obligation to protect the oppressed - as free individuals and as a free nation. I will not support a line of logic that says "love your enemies" when an evil and brutual regime has rape rooms for innocent women, a regime that crucifies young teenagers in the windows of prison camps, a regime that deprives new mothers of the nourishment necessary to produce breastmilk for their new infants, a regime that starves its elderly, a regime that surrounds itself with innocent civilians to protect its own power. That's not loving your enemies, that's appeasement. The truth we possess will defeat and divide - I'm willing to use it as the sword to bring down Saddam Hussein and free a bleeding, desperate people.
adam
March 20th, 2003 at 3:13 am
Thanks for the responses. I'll read them and think them over.
Something still feels wrong about it all to me, and I don't think it's something I can argue logically. :-\