I have no political affiliation. Whatsoever.
I am not a liberal. I am not a conservative. Honestly, for the most part, I try not to think about politics. Not because I don't care; not because I'm stupid. More, because it frightens me. (Ignorance is bliss. Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so - pick a clich?, I don't care. Make it work for you.)
I may not be inclined to think about politics. I am, however, a person inclined to understand things, and, to put it simply - I don't get our current situation with Iraq.
Last week, I caught the evening news. Admist the weather updates and the local crime stories, the station broadcasted a clip of George W. Bush. He was talking about his favorite person, Saddam Hussein. "He tried to kill my dad," Bush said. At this point, I was taken aback.
You hear the rumors; you see the parodies. This was real. Those words actually came out Bush's mouth. (As Matthew Fair, one of The Signal's production managers, put it: "the man makes satire obsolete.") This was when I thought, "our president is a chimpanzee. This country is being run by monkeys."
Do you know how the 1968 "Planet of the Apes" ends?
Journalism tends to make you cynical. Hell, everything these days tends to make you cynical. When Bush was elected (and I use that term loosely), a lot of people were running for the border - Alec Baldwin, Eddie Vedder. Friends of mine were in tears. Honestly, I thought it couldn't be that bad. Now I am thinking "maybe I was wrong."
Still, let's, for a moment, put cynicism aside. Reduce the argument to the bare bones minimum.
Someone, please, just tell me, why should we go to war with Iraq?
Cut out the conservatives' personal vendettas. Forget about how Saddam Hussein treats his people. Spare me the liberals' sarcastic remarks - don't tell me "this is about oil; this is about money." I don't need another speech about the politics of re-election.
Explain to me, as if I were a two-year-old, why things need to be this way. I don't want to hear the aforementioned excuses.
Give me a reason.
