From outside the box

Our government has become very efficient at sanitizing war. When war is sanitized it becomes more palatable, and war should never be palatable. War should always be disgusting. War should always be an unacceptable alternative except in the most extreme situations. War should always be a last resort. A last resort for going to war is not because somebody was harboring terrorist's or lying about having certain weapons. A last resort is not going to war to get rid of a dictator or to spread democracy.

It's easy to support war if you've never been in one. It seems that the biggest proponents, the loudest voices for the war in Iraq, are coming from folks who have no idea what they are talking about. Most of them do not have any kids fighting in the war, they have never fought in a war, they have never visited the front lines of a war, they do not know or understand the violence and the horrors of which they so easily write and spout off the virtues and importance of.

I could never condone a war or be willing to send somebody else's kids to die in that war, if I was not willing to fight myself or send my own children. I do not care about age, gender, or state of health. If a situation is serious enough that people need to go and die, then we should all be ready to go and die. So I ask the question: how many of you right wing war mongers are willing to go to Iraq and die or send your children there to die or be maimed or mentally f..ked up for life! It's really a very basic primal question and if you were really honest about the answer, most of you would just shut up and quit promoting this war from the safety of your computer or radio sound booth.

I already know the right wing response to what I just said. It goes something like this....Sadam was behind 9-11. Sadam gave safe haven to terrorists. We gave Sadam every chance in the world to let the inspectors finish their job. Sadam could have just left the country and this war would have been avoided. This war is necessary to protect your family from terrorist's. We fight them there so we don't have to fight them over here. Were fighting for our freedom.

To the arm chair war mongers I ask this question. Which one of these propaganda spin lines would you die for? Which one of these lies would be worth your 20 year old skipping college to go get his left arm and right eye ball blown off of his body for?

If you or your child has ever experienced the horror of war, I will listen to your opinions. I will take serious what you have to say and consider it. In the end, I may not agree with you because being in war does not necessarily make you philosophically right about war, but still, you have earned my respect enough for me to listen. To the rest of you I say this....You don't know what you are talking about. You are like the welfare recipient advocating for higher taxes. You are like healthy 20 year old who says euthanasia is always wrong. You are like the rich person, born into wealth, who says he understands what it's like to struggle to put food on the table or pay $4 for a gallon of gas. You are like the Catholic priest who provides marriage counseling to his parishioners. You are a hypocrite and a fake. You speak of unspeakable horrors from the safety of your homes. You condone others to suffer things you can not begin to imagine because of your own gullible ignorance and arrogance. You chose to see dots connected that have never been connected. You see war as a "policy" or an "issue" and not as the ugly reality that it is. You accept this war because it has been promoted by your affiliated political party knowing damn well that had the opposite party been in power and promoted the same lies to get us into the same war with the same results, you would have been screaming foul louder than most of us from the left has about this war. You right wing arm chair war mongers disgust me as much as the perpetrators of this war because without your constant promotion of this war and your ditto head mentality of going along with everything you have been told about this war, we would not be there today. You have helped to sell this war. You have enabled this war to continue. You can keep pushing it or you can stop it. When ALL of the people have decided that enough is enough, the so called "leaders" will follow.