big ugly

This is the ugliest thing mankind can do, short of nuclear war I suppose. Sometimes, as I sit here in my chair, watching cartoons, or on my Dad's redwood deck, watching the mated pair of doves splash in the bird bath, my brain buzzes happily with denial. At those moments I unconsciously believe that the righteous nation of my birth and its brave and noble armies are capable of waging a clean and moral, ideological war. That’s who we are, isn’t it? The good guys?

War is a bloodletting, havoc and hell. There’s no such thing as a good one, and we’re not the good guys anymore. I’m sure this would come as a complete surprise to our military people in Iraq, who are no doubt good people, caught up in all that chaos. The disingenuous pretext for all our shock and awe has, in my mind, stripped our country’s acts of all hope that history will reflect our righteous mandate.

Damn, it’s late. I’m tired. Let me just say I believe what the author of Baghdad Burning wrote on her blog. I’m sure it’s every bit that bad. Somebody needs to tell Mr. Bush, “Mr. President, John Wayne is dead, and you’re no John Wayne. You’ve done a really bad thing. Fix it.”

But let’s not tell the woman blogger in Baghdad that Karen Carpenter died of anorexia 20 years ago. She can hum “we’ve only just begun” until it gives her some hope.


[e-mail. be nice, I'm not goin' to war with you too]