So tired.

[camwyn]

The speech we are promised tonight cannot be anything but bad. It would take a visitation from God Himself to change the President's mind tonight, and even that might not work, because the President seems just the sort to write off a visitation as an attempt made by the Devil in disguise to dissuade him. I know Saddam Hussein is a bad, bad man who should no more be left in charge of a country than I should be allowed to handle an automatic firearm, but how does that make him any different from the scumbags our government has supported in the past? After our behavior towards our more convenient allies, we have no moral grounds for claiming he's evil and must be destroyed. We seem to have been quite comfortable with evil in the past, and more than willing to snuggle down with it now and call it righteousness - or to ignore it utterly when it suits us. I am not talking of North Korea, here. The Hermit Kingdom is run by a madman who has nothing to lose, and they might well do anything. Saddam Hussein might be a bad, bad man, but he at least has some glimmer of common sense to him. Not going to war with Korea is a different matter... no, I am talking of ignoring evil when it wears names like Robert Mugabe, or Hafiz Assad, or any one of a dozen other names. Where is the real and true reason? Where is the moral imperative that is not present in these other cases? Where is the reason that will make me feel that what we are going to do is right? Can they come up with anything even remotely approaching that? I will happily grant them their 'he's a bad bad man' part of the equation, but where is it written that we have to put the smackdown on him and not someone else?

If there is one, somewhere, I hope they see fit to throw that particular bone to us. Because otherwise they're as faithless as the government was on the day Francis Gary Powers was shot down. "We don't spy! We're honest!" "Yeah? Then why do we have one of your boys right here?" "..."

I have not lost all faith in humanity, nor even all faith in our government - but dammit, the world today turns my stomach and so much of it does so in areas I can't even begin to affect by means of the normal methods. What am I supposed to do? *sigh* Be grateful for the Red Cross, my employers, that's what. Be human. Be decent. Live up to their seven principles and be an example, and hope that it's enough for others to see and consider. I don't know what else is going to work. I only know what I can live with.

Comments

[pelogrande.livejournal.com]

I heard an interesting interview on NPR the other day.

One of the things that came up was that at some point well after the fact, the President during the U2 debacle (and I cannot for the life of me remember who - brainfart) said that if the Russians had been doing the same thing to us, we almost certainly would've gone to war.

[quintus.livejournal.com]

That would have been John F "Take it to the brink" Kennedy, and people wondered why Nikita Khruschev got so damned angry and did all that shoe-banging "We will bury you" malarky. God save us from men with moral missions and more ballistic missiles than brain cells.

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you've noticed, too, that the US completely failed to condemn Iraq for using gas on Iran during the '80s Iran-Iraq war... but that was when we were still in bed with Mr. Hussein. How easy to overlook a lover's flaws.B

[byaina.livejournal.com]

I have not lost all faith in humanity, nor even all faith in our government - but dammit, the world today turns my stomach and so much of it does so in areas I can't even begin to affect by means of the normal methods. What am I supposed to do?

This is exactly how I feel, and expressed more eloquently than I could ever hope to.

It is miserable and it is depressing and I hate knowing that the rest of the world hates me for being an American because our president, whom I did not vote for and whom I do not approve of, is such a goddamned cowboy. Sometimes the single most depressing thing about everything that's going on right now is that even if I did finally get up the balls to leave the country and move somewhere else, I would not be at all welcomed just about anywhere because of the damage the President of the United States has done to our country's international reputation.

Nothing I can control. Nothing I can help at all. Augh.

I need some chocolate. And a hug. Anyone care to join me?

Re:

[camwyn]

I've got a bottle of Mountain Dew and it's a half hour drive to where I keep my kites and marbles. Best I can do.

[byaina.livejournal.com]

Kites and marbles are as good as chocolate and hugs.

A bit off topic

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

...who should no more be left in charge of a country than I should be allowed to handle an automatic firearm...

What, only after an introductory lesson by someone who knows what they're doing?

Honestly, I'm less scared of the thought of you with an automatic weapon than some of the individuals running around near my neighborhood who have them. Much less scared. I know you've got your head screwed on tight.

-M

Re: A bit off topic

[camwyn]

Then you haven't seen me at the archery field. I get decent scores when I practice, but you're talking to someone who once bounced her own arrow off her head (it involved a Shaker sweater and bowstring slap). AND who is the only person on the continent of North America to forget how to ride a bicycle. I had to be taught twice.

It's not my temperament I don't trust around guns; frankly I'd be more worried about my temperament around knives. It's my motor skills.

Re: A bit off topic

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

AND who is the only person on the continent of North America to forget how to ride a bicycle. I had to be taught twice

Um. <sheepishly raises hand>

There are at least two of us, then...

Re: A bit off topic

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

...bounced her own arrow off her head...

A reason why you should be shooting something safer, like a rifle. It's damn hard to shoot yourself with a rifle. (You should see some of the Rube Goldberg devices people have constructed to enable them to commit suicide with one.) It usually requires deliberately doing something really stupid.

Longarms are actually safer than pistols. I've known idiots who draw their sidearm with a finger inside the trigger guard. Then they wonder why they're suddenly missing a toe. Morons.

And hey, at least you were able to learn how to ride a bike. I still can't. Though I will admit that I haven't tried in years.

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