Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: The Weakerthans – My Favorite Chords

I can’t believe how many people are pro-war “because of 9/11”. Iraq is in no way responsible for the events of September 11, 2001. There are many other nations far more sympathetic to Al Qaedi, and no evidence has been presented linking Iraq to 9/11. However, all it takes is Bush making speech after speech in which he verbally attacks Iraq, and then mentions 9/11. All of a sudden people associate the two and consider Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden to be the same person practically.

And I can’t believe how many people feel that being against the war is the same as being against America or being against the people in our armed forces. Evidently these people haven’t heard the numerous veterans who also oppose the war.

I’ve read numerous speeches and editorials by people who are railing against celebrities who oppose the war. They argue that these celebrities aren’t the ones in the armed services protecting our freedoms, and thus they should keep quiet and support our President. I don’t know where to begin. First, if someone truly supports America, you’d think they’d be in favor of freedom of speech. And second, it never ceases to amaze me that these people insult celebrities for not being willing to defend their country, and THEN go on to praise President Bush, who avoided military service when many other Americans were being sent to war. Jesus.

I think there are intelligent arguments that can be made for the pro-war case. However, I rarely hear any pro-war people giving them. Most people who are pro-war either have blind faith in our President, or somehow think that attacking Iraq has some connection to September 11th. Or both. It’s crazy.

Oh, I almost forgot. How many people have I heard saying that we shouldn’t worry about Iraqi casualties, because nobody worried about our deaths on September 11th. Wow, there’s the 9/11 connection again. And worse! Now somehow the Iraqi civilians are involved. Gee, I guess all Arabs must be our enemies. Each and every person in the Middle East personally helped Al Qaedi. Maybe we should just round up all of the Muslims and kill them. I’ve heard more than one person tell me, completely serious, that the Muslim religion is based on killing and war. Yes, because lord knows Christians have never waged holy wars.

Too many people use the justification “Well, the terrorists would have no problem doing that” as justification for us doing something distasteful or wrong. Such as torturing people. Or killing civilians. Or reducing freedoms and liberties within our own nation. You know what? Unless you WANT us to be like the terrorists, maybe you should stop using that justification. Aren’t we supposed to hold ourselves to a higher standard?

I don’t think I’ve ever been so disillusioned as I am lately. My faith in my fellow human beings is at an all-time low.

Most people who read this probably assume by now that I am fervently anti-war. This is not the case. I think the war is a mistake, but as I said, I can see intelligent arguments for it as well. What bothers me the most about this entire situation is:

1) The fact that people accept George Bush’s explanations for why this war is justified. When I hear people explaining why they think we need to go to war, less than 1 in 10 people give any sort of intelligent reasoning.

2) The fact that the U.S. is alienating a large portion of the world by acting morally superior to them. It brings to mind this week’s issue of the Onion, displaying a U.S. bomb that is capable of “creating 1500 terrorists in a single blast”. I wonder if the public would even understand that joke.

These are sad times.