Warblogging

Well, it looks like war with Iraq is now pretty much inevitable, not that this really suprises me very much. I feel like I should say something about the whole situation, but, in my usual wishy-washy, fence-sitting way, I find it difficult to actually form a coherent opinion.

I mean, I hate war. I hate the idea of war... the reality of war... the consequences of war. I'd love to believe, as I rather naively did when I was a teenager, that it would be enough to just say "Why can't we all just get along?" and mean it. It isn't, of course, and as I get older I find myself increasingly forced to acknowledge the sad truth that sometimes violence does solve problems.

Whether it will solve anything in this case, though, I honestly don't know. There's no denying that Saddam is an awful person, and that it'd be no bad thing for anyone if he were to be removed from power. And I do understand why Bush considers him a threat to the U.S. Regardless of what I might think of the President's decisions (which, as I've said, isn't something I've made my mind up about one way or another), I'm definitely not one of those conspiracy-theorist types who thinks he's acting on some sinister agenda of his own.

I'll tell you what really does worry me, though. What worries me is the degree to which my country's handling of this situation contributes to the not-entirely-inaccurate perception among the rest of the world of the US as a sort of global-schoolyard bully: dangerously powerful, completely self-absorbed, and inclined to throw its weight around with more force than discrimination. This bothers me because I loathe bullies, of any sort, and I hate the thought of being, in a sense, part of one.

On the other hand...

Aw, shit, never mind. I think I've long since run out of hands. Let's put it this way. I don't know whether going to war is a good idea or not, I don't know whether it's necessary or not. I just hope it's over with quickly and the outcome is as good as can be hoped for. To be honest, I'm more than a little afraid that even if things go swimmingly in Iraq the net result might just be to make the rest of the world hate us even more... Which isn't going to do much of anything to increase our security from terrorism, is it?

Anyway, that's my political blogging for a while. I think you can probably understand by this point why I don't discuss profound world affairs much...