Ignorance Isn't America's Ally
/The Boston Herald
As the war drums beat louder and faster every day, I wonder, how did we get here?
Every night now on the news there is fresh footage of young people going off to war. Why are they going? What exactly are they fighting for?
Two Air Force pilots went off to Afghanistan with the best of intentions. Then the Air Force allegedly force-fed them amphetamines, gave them a plane full of weapons, briefed them about the enemy lurking on the ground but failed to tell them that there were Canadians on the ground, too.
The pilots were on speed the night they mistook friendly fire for the enemy, killing four Canadian soldiers and wounding eight.
In civilian life, people who take drugs are prosecuted. Yet the U.S. Air Force not only condoned use of amphetamines but allegedly insisted that its pilots take them to stay alert. And when the mandated speed causes men to overreact? The military says "you guys screwed up." And the pilots, who were made to take a drug known to cause paranoia and affect judgement, are hung out to dry, not their pill-pushing superiors.
Wednesday, vials of bubonic plague were reported missing from Texas Tech University. Then, a few hours later, they were reported found. Then they were reported sort of found, still missing maybe, but authorities knew where they were and that they weren't dangerous anyway.
Is it any wonder we walk around confused about what is real and what is invention?
How did we go from a war on terrorism to a war on Saddam Hussein? Why in this democracy of democracies, where we are privy to the most personal information about people we don't even know, are we not getting the answers to this one question?
After Sept. 11, 2001, when the United States could have started World War III with most of the world's support, we didn't. We waited. And waited. And now we're still waiting. So why do we have our guns pointed at someone else?
Is this a diversion? Or is there a direct connection between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11 and if so, why doesn't President Bush tell us? Americans wouldn't be confused then. And neither would the world. All free people would understand.
And if there is not a connection, then what are we doing? What is the imperative in stopping Saddam Hussein from making what the government refers to as "weapons of mass destruction" when Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Great Britain and France all have nuclear weapons? And Iran and Libya have the materials and the know-how. And North Korea is rattling its saber.
Why are we in the ring with this one particular foe?
And why is there no talk of gas masks this time, but talk of smallpox instead? That's what we're preparing for. That's what the local emergency councils are talking about and hospitals all over the country are readying for. If we drop a bomb on Iraq, Saddam will infect us with smallpox. Is this more conjecture? Or is it fact?
This is what's wrong. Nobody knows anything. Nobody knows if we're going to war or if we're not going to war. Nobody knows if we go, when we'll go. The United States wants to go soon so that its troops don't have to fight in the heat of the summer. It's only these random, ridiculous things that we're told.
Saddam is evil. He's always been evil. Why are we after him now? He mistreats his people? He's always mistreated his people.
Nobody knows the goals of this war or how it will be fought and contained. Or if it will be contained. Or if it will end.
We are not subjects of a king in this country. The president is our elected leader. If there is a reason for war, and reason for Americans to die, then President Bush needs to tell us now.
