You know, in the midst of all this treason talk I've been thinking about my position on the war. On the one hand, I believe success in Iraq will further encourage the U.S. to involve itself in the affairs of other countries, thus making us significantly less safe. On the other hand, I have family in the military and do not support their defeat. They do not deserve to be opposed by me because of the political establishment's poor policy decisions.
I guess at this point I feel that the whole Iraq war is just a big mess. With the goal undesirable (not success necessarily but the fruits of success, or rather the long term consequences of a nation-building America to domestic economic and civil freedom) and defeat unsupportable (I think the effects of a defeat in Iraq could possibly be worth it, but not at the expense of demostrating an inability to conquer such a pathetic country) I have to divorce myself from the whole dichotomy. It just doesn't affect my day-to-day life. I support the troops winning (after all, it costs me nothing, although I guess now I owe it to America to put a yellow ribbon on my car) - but I don't really believe in what they're fighting for. I support us changing our foreign policy and getting the hell out of other nations' business - but I don't want the price for that to be national humilation.
God damn Bush for getting us into this. To parse Lincoln, if by winning the war we could bring all the soldiers home from all their engagements all over the world, thereby making America safer, I would fully support the war. And if by losing the war we could do the same, I would support that. Since I can't know the consequences of either outcome ahead of time, I guess I have to just resign myself to the gov't not working for interests that I care about. It's not that I'm for/against the war, but rather it's that the war is not even the issue for me. And I shouldn't make it the issue when talking to people who are in the "win or lose" frame of mind, because that whole way of thinking is tangential to my understanding of my interests and the national interest.
What sucky times.
Read this article
