Me – State of the Opinion

Here is another irregular distillation of my general opinion of the US and the world. I’m sure most get enough and know enough about what I think if they read me regularly, but I like to try and condense it all into a single place occasionally.

America has lost its way.

We used to be a nation of freedom, where anyone could give public officials a verbal slapping and not be attacked overwhelmingly for it. days like that are past for now, as radio personalities twist and corrupt the spirit of our freedoms in the name of patriotism. Protest is treason, some say. No, denying the people protest is treason, so says the spirit of this countries freedoms.

People are forgetting this simple fact. In fear of terrorism, they willingly turn over their freedoms in order to feel just a little safer. Just a little more at peace. Then the terror alerts come, the threat level rises and so to do the stress levels of Americans rise. Jolts of fear for the already fearful to further convince them that they need to bow and scrape to their wonderful leaders who keep them so safe in these times of bogeymen and traitors.

We fancy ourselves adults, but far too many Americans are like scared little children these days. And we let our media and leaders treat us like children, so as to feel all the more safe and coddled in our boxes, caring not for what lies beyond our borders.

The world is in chaos.

Not the drastic, mad max variety of chaos. No, it’s a more subtle form of chaos that has always existed. One born of egos and pomp. The disorder of nations that ignore their common ground and lack the cooperation needed to meet the challenges of the day, letting personal grudges effect their judgment in the way a child throws a tantrum.

We are a world of children lead by children, blundering into the future with no plan or focus. Reactionary rather than proactive. But what are we waiting for?

Focusing, Iraq is turning into Afghanistan. That is the simple summary of matters. The validity of the war matters little now, save for another embarrassing footnote in history. The ‘success’ of the war is in question, wondering if our pricey missiles were the true victor or if it was the almighty buck that made Iraqi generals bow and step aside(refer to my last news entry).

But all that matters not in the now for the Iraqi people. Their needs are simple. Food, water, shelter, security and direction. After thirty years of security(broken only by Saddam’s humanitarian crimes) and focus. Now they are in a form of purgatory after being promised blessed rebirth. Only that rebirth has sputtered and coughed along at a relative snails pace.

The United States went into the war with no plan, save for the battle plan. And even that was faulty at first, assuming that Turkey would be bought as a second front. Perhaps the war would have been faster with that front. But would the current situation have been at all different?

Would the Iraqi people now have food, water and medical attention in abundance? Would more than the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad have been under guard? Would the hospitals have been guarded against would be looters, keeping them from being cleaned out and rendered impotent to harm the injured? Would there be hundreds more engineers on the ground, sweeping across the country at a mad pace to restore services that were knocked out? Would guards have been posted at all potential WMD and nuke sites to keep looters from making off with various dangerous materials?

Would Bush concede to allowing Iraqis to have the Islamic government they wish?

After all, he keeps sayings its all about the Iraqi people. Yet they aren’t the ones deciding what manner of government they will have. That decision still rests firmly in Washington’s control.

The war was bad. The US pessimisms which destroyed any potential for real diplomacy before it was annoying. The fact that this country is now left in the lurch because there was no plan on how to rebuild it, stimulate its economy and minimize the suffering of the people in this time of anarchy is criminal. And each day that passes, the US incriminates themselves just a little bit more with the embarrassing lack of progress on all fronts.

Well, except for tracking down Saddam’s flunkies. That’s something they do right at the very least. Goes to show the US is a better policeman for the world than leader for it. This country needs to be relegated to the level of enforcer. The world’s trained attack dog, to be unleashed in a controlled way so its gross incompetence can’t cause too much collateral damage.

Pessimist any? Yes, I am. But don’t mistake me. I love America. I always have. What kills me are the mindless who run it. Or perhaps run it into the ground would be a better term. I love this country and its freedoms, but that won’t be used as a club to force me to like who runs it. Personally, I’ve never had any use for politicians. With very few exceptions, they’re all as worthwhile to me as a stack of steaming pant loads.

I despise hypocrites. When I’m wrong, I admit it and adjust my views. I’ve done it several times as my opinions have grown and matured over the last few years. Largely, it started when I started this diary. I got more interested in the outside world after 9/11, I’ll admit. Before then, I wasn’t as aware as I am now.

I was also less disgusted with the state of the world then. Ignorance is bliss.

Politicians, they look to themselves. Personally, I look to the survival of our race. Looking forward as I do, it makes me cringe to see the pointlessly short term thoughts and plans of our leaders. They don’t think ahead. They don’t look to the race. They look to their borders. Imaginary lines on paper that declare this mound of dirt as ‘ours’. It shows the simple minds of humans to be pleased by a speck of dirt when there is so much more out there than this one world.

Yet I despair as I watch the petty little squabbles of ‘great men’ going on and on about their little road maps, their few billion dollars, their need to control the music industry for just another ten years, their stubborn clinging to oil, while missing that all the oil will be gone in two hundred years at the rate we suck it out of the ground.

And at the rate we’re going, we won’t have an alternate when that time rolls around.

The space program remains a hobby for the most part, while our leaders spend more money than the next five nations on more weapons with which to enforce our dominance and spread our ideology whether others want it or not. After all, everyone must have the freedoms we have, exactly how we have them. That they might want something different doesn’t matter in the slightest. We’re the biggest, we’re the richest and that makes us the wisest.

Doesn’t it?

One of my favorites often wonders about her sanity, but really I wonder more about the sanity of our world and its people. Looking back, can you truly say the world isn’t insane? We must all be caught in some dreaded fit of madness. The only question is, if we’re all insane, are those we term insane actually the most lucid? Perhaps they know something we don’t.

Perhaps we should ask.