serendipity

Serendipity, I agree with your Iraq war thouhts. More on my thougts... It's a lot, but worth reading.

I was thinking just today in a "put myself in an average Iraqi's shoes" sort of way. In those shoes, I wonder what I'd be thinking about all this. On one hand, knowing the historic trail that lead to my situation of limited rights/means, I'd fault substantially the West, especially, recently the US. On the other hand, if I forget the history and just want the quickest way out, I might be welcoming a war. It'd be a trade off of short term turmoil, small risk of injury/death, for a chance of something new. A great gamble. Granted, the 'new' certainty wouldn't, couldn't be ideal; It could even be worse, but probably would be at least a little better that the current quagmire I'm in with no light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, there are far better ways of getting to a better end than war, if the rest of the world truly prioritized my interest above theirs or at least nearly equal to theirs. But, realistically, when's that going to happen for me? Interesting, but weighing it all, I might chose to be bombed, as a lesser of many evils. Of course this is a view of desperation, one I should never have been forced to have.

I'm not that Iraqi, fortunately, so I have the luxury of forming a view based on long term good, not short term desperation. So, my role is to do what little I can to help grow the bounds of influences that do seek a better way than war, because I know ultimately that a path without war, even if it takes longer, is a better one. Selfish or rational?

Our bush leader and his team have successfully biased the masses towards war by scaring them. Americans are afraid, mostly of another 9/11, a little of loss of job/wealth. By far most significantly, they are afraid of the "Axes of Evils" and all those WMDs they've amassed. Of course, this fear is based on nothing real, not at first. But, if it's believed long enough it will make itself true by causing those we fear for false reasons to fear us for very real reasons, leading to real reasons for both sides to fear each other. Bush has little wisdom, but is incredibly effective at moving his agenda forward. He owes this success almost solely to the fear of the people stemming from 9/11 and perpetuated for political gain.

Bush's push towards war is based mainly on 3 simple things, in this order of priority.

1) Fear. Bush really believes the Axis of Evil and Qaeda are significant, imminent threats, probably based on intelligence data pushed by right wing ultra conservatives with an agenda of their own. Maybe he's correct on this, maybe not. Either way, it's not terribly important. What is important is that unfortunately, he lacks the historical perspective, world understanding, and wisdom to see a way to disarm the "potential" risk without threatening war.

2) Domestic Politics. The administration has stumbled into a realization that perpetuating the fear that 9/11 created in the population is a great tool for moving the conservative agenda forward on all fronts- everything from government funding for churches, revising abortion law, relaxing environmental regs, limiting civil rights in the name of homeland security, etc.

3) Oil. "There's oil over there." To be honest, I think that's about as deep and strategic as the Bush's thinking goes on this one. He simply likes oil, and Iraq's got a bunch. I doubt there's anything significant to be gained for US Oil biz from this war. US biz interests realized no significant gains in Kuwait between the '91 Gulf War and now. There's no reason to believe this war would produce a different result. He probably doesn't know that however. He probably also doesn't realize that an oil shortage of significant magnitude and duration would be the best possible thing for the World's major economies. I'm sure execs at GM, Ford, etc are hoping for it. There's a new industry afoot. The auto makers, especially GM/Ford, have dumped *B*illions into refining hydrogen vehicle technology. They house buildings full of PhDs who's sole working purpose are to make hydrogen energy technology practical for everything from vehicles to cell phones. Similar investments are being made in Europe and Japan. The designs have matured. The protos are validated. They're nearly ready to see some payback from their investment. It's waiting for the right legislation and recipe of events to trigger an explosive acceleration in infrastructure development. Don't worry about the oil companies though. They are maneuvering to control and make money from that infrastructure.


Let's hope the Democrats manage to pull their head out of the manure pile in 2004. I haven't heard a lot from Gephardt yet. Though, heard him briefly mention 3 platforms he's running on: Integrating worldwide workers rights, worldwide minimum wage, and environmental requirements into the WTO, developing the hydrogen vehicle industry, and raising taxes. I'm not so sure about the last one, all depends on "how much" and "where" it's going.

i'm sick of talking about the "war"
it's not fuvking war
there are too many other names to call it, and if you can't figure them out, well don't worry, you were "right"

your face reminds me of a girl i met a few years ago named aria. it's you eyes and nose mostly

here's a joke
a pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel stuck in his pants
the bartender goes "you know you've got a steering wheel stickin out of your crotch, right?"
and the pirate goes:
(say it out loud, in pirate voice)
"arrrghhhh... it's drivin me nuts"

if you don't laugh, you suck at life.

reprazent.