...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Tuesday, April 01, 2003
      ( 12:53 PM )
 
Why?

Tacitus has asked the question today: Why do you think this war is being fought? There is an interesting string of comments forming, people discussing why they think what's happening is happening. Many theories, many ideas... yet I find myself agreeing with the few posts that say "I don't know." This question has really got me thinking. There are probably tons of peripheral reasons why we invaded Iraq. All the stuff about Bush, his dad, oil, Rumsfeld, Cheney, holy war, spread of democracy, etc. These reasons are all there in the mix. But when you get right down to it, I just wonder what the true reason is. It seems too simple to just say "empire building." Or "pre-emptory action against terrorism." Or "oil." I guess in the end, history may prove the only way to discover the true reasons. Unless we get another "Pentagon Papers" leaked on this one, which will show the true line of decision making that brought us to this point.

I think of this sometimes in terms of how will I explain these times to my child. P is 16 years older than me and he experienced the Vietnam / Watergate years as an informed young adult, as opposed to me who was under a decade old when everything was over with. I ask him "what did you think when this happened?" or "what kinds of things were going on surrounding this event?" I know that the Kid will ask me the same things. He was born the day that the last bit of the WTC towers was hauled away and the digging and construction trucks left the scene. He will wonder why this war was waged...but he'll have a different perspective than I do right now. He will have the perspective of someone experiencing the results and consequences of the policies and decisions this Administration has made. What will history tell him about what is happening right now? Will it all be okay because in the end Saddam was killed and we took over Iraq? Or will it be a mess because he has lived his entire young life under threat of random terrorist attacks because of what we have done here?

Why is this war being fought? I don't know. Yet. But I do know this: It's not being fought in order to bring humanity and the world together, to work together, to trade together, to develop, invent, progress together - to feed each other, to provide resources to each other, to make the most of what we all have to share. It's not being fought to create equality or justice, it's not being fought for freedom or democracy. It's not going to lead us into salvation or into peace or into security. So why is this war being fought? Maybe I'll just have to wait for my son to grow up and tell me.

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