The latest Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker is frightening, even as I try to convince myself that dday is right at Hullabaloo, that it's less a fait accompli than a media shot across the bow, a warning designed to make an attack on Iran less likely.
I'm agnostic on the subject of Iranian weapons - I'd rather no one had weapons of mass destruction but I'm no more afraid of the Iranians than I am, say, the Pakistanis or, for that matter, the Bush regime. What I don't understand is how Americans can let themselves be known, the world over, as cowards.
How many children should we kill to reduce the already minuscule chance of of our own death by terror? Seriously - help me out here.
I don't feel like I'm a particularly brave person, certainly no braver than what i consider to be average. So I'm surprised that so many Americans (and our "leaders") are willing to kill untold numbers of clearly innocent people (in the form of Islamic civilians and US servicemen and women) to reduce the already small chance that some of us might die in a terrorist attack.
It's always boiled down to a simple equation for me: how many innocent children am I personally willing to kill to have the illusion of greater safety? For me, the answer is "0". But I'll take it further - how many innocent children am I willing to kill to ensure my safety? What if I were given a clear-cut choice: kill this child and live, or refuse and die?
I'm not particularly brave, but this is still an easy choice. I will not kill the innocent to save my own skin.
Here's where the confusion comes in... I can't believe I'm not in the vast majority. I don't believe I'm not in the vast majority. And yet...
Cowards. There must be cowards among us, those flag-waving war enthusiasts who see their cowardice as bravery (paging Mr. Orwell). It makes me sick with grief to see what we've done, and sick with dreadful anticipation of what we might do if Hersh is correct.
How many innocents should we be prepared to kill to increase the illusion of our safety? I fear the war enthusiast's answer is "everyone but me and my family". Cowards.