My thoughts on war, since it's been on my mind lately:
I keep mulling over President Bush's possible motives for going to war, and the optimist in me has dispelled the most cynical (for oil) while the analyst has crossed off the most basic (self-defense). I have to believe that Bush is not so terrible and greed-driven a human being to risk thousands of American lives for something as basic as profit, and Iraq doesn't possess the resources or have the motivation to do our country real and devastating harm. Meanwhile, the most benevolent motive (to save the Iraqi people) becomes moot in the face of the government's announcement that we're going to begin our campaign by dropping an obscene amount of bombs on the people we're purportedly trying to save.
President Bush's true motive, something that comes up again and again, seems to simply be that this is a battle of Good versus Evil, of Right versus Wrong.
This, honestly, frightens me. Because simplistic generalizations of Good and Evil are the crutch of people who aren't examining the issue closely enough, and don't want to, because they might not like what they see. It's the Good-and-Evil, Black-And-White mode of thinking that compels individuals to fly planes into buildings. It's Jihad thought. It's Stone Age reasoning. And we're better than that; if we're going to be the World's Policeman, then we've got to be. Is it any wonder other nations are reluctant to stand aside and let us sprint on to war, with that kind of childlike motivation driving us on? I understand the appeal of breaking a complex decision down to its most simple elements, but that's not the kind of thinking you want to do when you're facing the prospect of committing tens of thousands to misery or death. It's a complex decision because it damn well should be.
A recent article in The New York Times spoke of President Bush's resolution over his course of action, his conviction, his "imperviousness to doubt." The article attempted to be reassuring. It wasn't. Doubt is a human emotion, and the absence of it implies a decision made without regard to human ramifications. This isn't a time for blind conviction; it's a time for hand-wringing, for sleepless nights and passionate debate. Doubt leads to questions, and questions need to be asked, because the answers aren't black and white. Good and Evil. Right and Wrong.
The United States is not inherently good; Iraq isn't inherently evil. We are all human, and that's something we can't afford to forget.
