Most everyone here is against the Iraq War, and with more than enough reasons. Even those of us who feel that some international situations need to be dealt with aggressively - the Rwanda genocide, North Korea, Iraq under Hussein - have little stomach for the Bush style of foreign policy and pre-emptive war.
But the fact is, the majority of Americans rallied 'round the flag on the flimsiest of pretences. Why? I think the truth is that the American public actually likes war. Let me explain.
It's easy to come up with reasons why Americans like wars. We love technology, and today's military and naval forces have the latest gadgets. Americans like to think in terms of good and evil, and there's a visceral thrill to getting rid of bad guys. Bush today is playing that card, since the WMD threat proved nonexistent: Saddam was bad, and we got rid of him, so the world is a better place. It's not a bad argument in a way; who can possibly argue that Saddam was a force for good in the world?
But the most compelling reason why Americans like war -- or at the very least, accept it willingly -- is that they have not experienced real war, only the sanitized, popularized two-dimensional version, which bears but a dim resemblance to the reality. War, to the viewing public, is akin to reality shows and NFL games. Cheer your team to victory!
Not since our own Civil War have Americans had their own homes, neighborhoods, and businesses destroyed. A few Americans have seen war firsthand, either through military service or living in other countries during bad times, but for most people war is abstract and far away. Americans have no conception, not in their worst nightmares in the darkest hours of the night, what it is like to be caught in wartime, between opposing forces of aggressive adolescents armed with powerful weapons and lots of ammunition. They don't know the grief of seeing innocent victims -- children, grandparents, bystanders of every sort -- mutilated by hard, ragged steel. TV images give no sense of the unedited, 360° confusion of sights, smells, and sounds in a war zone.
While too many Americans see war as a video game, huge numbers of people of Europe, Asia, and Africa have seen war within the last two or three generations, well within the living memory of many. War, to them, is not an idealized clash of ideologies or a struggle of good and evil, but doors crashing down in the middle of the night, bombs exploding next door, aircraft screaming overhead, searches for fragments of children's bodies.
I know there is no painless way for Americans to see the real ugliness of war. But what makes it far worse is the complete lack of empathy most Americans have for those caught up in war. After all, many say, those people are foreigners, so who cares? Americans go to sleep every night feeling secure that their geographical and cultural isolation will keep the world's ills at bay.
Sigh. I could feel this anti-war rant welling up and it just had to get out somewhere, so there it is.