Tuesday, March 18, 2003

So it is war then. Twenty-four hours is all we have left of sanity. Now that it is on, I hope it is swift and the American casualties light. And I so hope that Saddam does not use chemical weapons. He has already started sabotaging oil well’s, I hope we can secure the rest before the moron creates yet another environmental disaster.

I am glad that I am no longer in the Navy, but part of me wishes that I was still in and doing something. My life, and the lives of all Americans save those in the gulf, and their families, are so far removed from this war, that it may as well be a long running movie! It just doesn’t affect us. We go about our lives with nary a care, but perhaps with the commencement of hostilities that will change if terrorism comes calling on American soil once again. A terrorist campaign like the one that has become a normal part of Israeli life, visited upon America would paralyze this country. I fear that more then I fear that American forces currently putting themselves in harms way will come to a bad end.

If a terrorist campaign where suicide bombers blow themselves up one after another on the streets of American cities would be devastating, and I fear the Constitution may not survive it! Already, after 9/11 our civil liberties are under assault and the Constitution is burning at the fringes. Ashcroft, I feel, would love nothing better then to declare Marshall Law, and force us all onto our knees to pray for salvation and the American way! Imagine then the assault on the venerable document if terrorist declared all out Israeli war on the U.S. and it populace. With our open society they would be almost impossible to stop without the institution of some sort of Marshall Law doctrine. It is too frightening to even think about in depth.

I couldn’t even envision life I such an America, so use to my freedom am I. I’m not sure I’d want to live through that kind of hell. The uncertainly of where the next bomb would go off, coupled with the governmental constraints would be almost unbearable. And it would be open season on Muslims and anyone perceived to be Arab. Could we see a return to the Japanese style internment camps of 1942? In the name of national security anything seems game.

So it is war! The dogs have been released; their teeth sharpened dripping with fire of revenge, looking for a target neutralize, their path dead reckoned on Baghdad. Lord, I am tired of war. I wonder what peace would look like, how would I taste, smell, and feel like? Would the human race know how handle peace? Probably not, too much evil intent. We do not after all, live in a Star Trek world, yet!

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