Rec.arts.sf.fandom

[sinanju]

It may be getting to be time to drop out of rec.arts.sf.fandom (rasseff) again.

We're in the run-up to the 2004 Presidential campaign and the Usual Suspects in rasseff are still whining and crying about 2000. And they are, of course, also determined to see everything that's happened in the last three years in the worst possible light.

The War in Iraq is not just wrong, it's evil. And even if it weren't evil, the motives couldn't possibly have been (or couldn't possibly be) anything but venal and malicious. And even if that weren't the case, it's an obvious failure. And even if it isn't, it will be. And even if it won't, it's too expensive. And even if it's not, we shouldn't be there.

The war is about oil. No, it's bread and circuses. No, it's "Wag the Dog". No, it's about the rebuilding contracts. No, it's about revenge for the attempt on Daddy's life. No, it's an excuse for building the ultimate surveillance state. No, it's a distraction from the economy. No, it's pointless thrashing (we couldn't find the real culprits of 9/11, see, so we picked Hussein at random).

We should talk to the terrorists. We should understand why they hate us (with the implication that it is, of course, all our fault). We can't possibly defeat them. We can't possibly deter them. We can, we must, placate them. Only then can we have peace.

Well, fuck that. Whether it's Al-Queda or Ba'athist stooges who want to regain power in Iraq or Palestinian splodey-dopes, I don't need to "understand" them. I understand enough--they're the enemy. If they want a shooting war (and blowing up innocent civilians in suicide bombings is a shooting war), I want them to have it in spades. And I want it to happen in their backyards, and their homes. I want them to live in constant fear of American (or Israeli) spec-ops guys shooting them in their sleep.

More, I want them to gnash their teeth in anguished frustration while we turn Iraq into a free, secular nation with a democratically-elected government. I want them to suffer the torment of seeing women walk around without chaperones, wearing the clothes they like; the torment of seeing their children listening/watching/reading American pop culture and wearing jeans while they do it. I want them to fear the reaction of their own oppressed peoples in other oppressive muslim cultures when those people start to wonder why Iraq is free but they aren't, and wonder why, exactly, they should let these assholes run their lives?

I approve of the war. Not of every step, but of the overall aims and intent. And I cannot shake the feeling that a lot of the Usual Suspects in rasseff who can't bring themselves to do so would approve of it too...if only their guys were in charge.

Comments

[coffeeinhell.livejournal.com]

That's Usenet for ya.

Hell, I disapprove heartily of the war and I think it's dead wrong -- but despite my occasionally glib bad-mouthing of it, I still know that it's one helluva lot more complicated than just being about Bush's ego or oil. When people start casually tossing off the word "evil" then you know they're talking strictly from their emotions.

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

That's the thing. You can disagree about the wisdom of the war without assuming that anyone who disagrees is evil. But the usual suspects in rasseff have spent the last three years _starting_ from the assumption that Bush (in particular) and the Republicans (in general) are evil. Mustache-twirling, cape-wearing, tying-Nell-to-the-railroad-tracks eeeeeevil. Everything else follows from that bedrock assumption.