21 August 2008
Dire predictions
I was deeply saddened on March 20, 2003, when the Iraq invasion began. That evening, I was at a local American Legion at which our community theater group was preparing a somewhat patriotic themed show. There had been some earlier tension in the group when a high school girl volunteering for our group was called to task by a group member for wearing a "No War" button. She was called naive and told that things weren't always so simple as her button suggested.
The night of the invasion, as the news came on the TV at the bar of the Legion hall, some cast members cheered. Two others were visibly upset. One, a mother of a military son, was crying. I myself, felt sick to my stomach - more at the callousness of those cheering, but also at what I perceived as a loss of hope.
I was in junior high school when the Berlin wall came down and in high school when the soviet union collapsed. At the time, things were unclear, but eventually it seemed the dawn of a new era. Sure there would be wars and international conflicts, but there seemed to be no more big us vs them. No great struggle of will backed by the fear of mutual annihilation. It was peace in our time, and hope for its perpetuity.
Then, when the US aggressively invaded Iraq, those hopes were dashed. Sure, they had been battered by the WTC and Pentagon attacks, and by our invasion of Afghanistan. And prior to that, by our bombing of civilians in Serbia to counter their government's atrocities. But this was an exaggerated show of aggression, which to me appeared nakedly as an assertion of power, rather than purer, just, and democratic morals.
And now, the fear continues to build in the background, even as Iraq seems to fade from the news (withdrawal in 2009 has been proposed by Bush, but McCain has said decades of occupation may remain). Russia has invaded it's democratic and west-leaning neighbor of Georgia. And the US is stirring the embers of the past by forging ahead with missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. And in teh background, China looms as a vestige of the Communist era, even if it's a differnt breed of Marxism than the USSR had been.
I would have loved for my sons to be born in a time like the 90s, and known a decade of relative peace and hope. Instead, I fear they are coming into the world when we are at the brink of further war.
The night of the invasion, as the news came on the TV at the bar of the Legion hall, some cast members cheered. Two others were visibly upset. One, a mother of a military son, was crying. I myself, felt sick to my stomach - more at the callousness of those cheering, but also at what I perceived as a loss of hope.
I was in junior high school when the Berlin wall came down and in high school when the soviet union collapsed. At the time, things were unclear, but eventually it seemed the dawn of a new era. Sure there would be wars and international conflicts, but there seemed to be no more big us vs them. No great struggle of will backed by the fear of mutual annihilation. It was peace in our time, and hope for its perpetuity.
Then, when the US aggressively invaded Iraq, those hopes were dashed. Sure, they had been battered by the WTC and Pentagon attacks, and by our invasion of Afghanistan. And prior to that, by our bombing of civilians in Serbia to counter their government's atrocities. But this was an exaggerated show of aggression, which to me appeared nakedly as an assertion of power, rather than purer, just, and democratic morals.
And now, the fear continues to build in the background, even as Iraq seems to fade from the news (withdrawal in 2009 has been proposed by Bush, but McCain has said decades of occupation may remain). Russia has invaded it's democratic and west-leaning neighbor of Georgia. And the US is stirring the embers of the past by forging ahead with missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. And in teh background, China looms as a vestige of the Communist era, even if it's a differnt breed of Marxism than the USSR had been.
I would have loved for my sons to be born in a time like the 90s, and known a decade of relative peace and hope. Instead, I fear they are coming into the world when we are at the brink of further war.
