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Date Posted: 03:34:38 09/22/01 Sat
Author: Saint Faucet
Author Host/IP: we-24-130-10-210.we.mediaone.net / 24.130.10.210
Subject: No more songs about rainbows
In reply to: Mike Flame 's message, "I wish I was a Bullfrog (Mike's Political Rant For the Week.)" on 15:21:59 09/21/01 Fri

The Nostradamus bit is totally false.

Please forgive my following rant if it sounds completely out there and irrational. It's like 3 AM and I'm really tired.

I awoke on the morning of September 11th, 2001, to the sounds of my phone ringing at about 7 AM. No one in our apartment was awake enough to even form the thought of picking up the phone. As such, the answering machine went about its business of recording my roommate's mother giving us the message that the Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon had been hit. What followed was a nightmare of several hours spent tracking down my sister and her fiancee's whereabouts to ensure their safety and relocating my roommate's cat to her office in response to her fear of an attack on the LAX airport that lies across the street from our apartment complex. I spent the day feeling a general sense of disbelief and detachment as my mind wrestled with the unbelievable changes that had taken place.

A horrible series of acts occurred that day and many a nation became enraged. Cries for justice and retribution were raised. Calls for blood and vengenance were shouted. There were whispers of war, fingers pointed immediately at a known terrorist, and fists shaken angrily at those of Middle Eastern descent regardless of their nationality.

Now more than a week has passed and the United States' president has declared war. He has stated that if you are not with us, then you are against us. His words addressing the public and the Congress were broken up every five seconds with sounds of applause. His speech told of how the nation was to respond to this attack in both civil and military matters.

And yet, I'm still left shaking my head in disbelief.

We are at the precipice of a new era and I can honestly say I do not like the direction we are headed. While I believe that justice should be served and the guilty punished, I can not bring myself to support a war with no decernible end. Once the guilty has been caught, will the fight end there? No. President Bush has made it clear that he plans to stamp out all terrorists, attempt to turn them against each other, and to force them to remain on the run with no clear refuge. This is well and good, but in all honestly how long can a campaign of such magnitude last? While the larger organizations will potentially be splintered, there will still be smaller groups that slip through the cracks. Hunting them down will cost more money than most will be willing to spend on what amounts to looking for needles in a haystack. The only way this 'war' will be declared over is when the media groups start doing continuing exposes on how expensive the 'war' is and/or the public loses interest in supporting continued military action.

As I speak of 'war', my thoughts drift to the locations the battles will be fought. If you ask the common person on the street right now, they'll most likely give you an answer of "the Middle East" or "Afganastan". What most do not realize is that this conflict may start in the Middle East (regardless of whether proof is furnished of certain Middle Eastern person's envolvements with the terrorist acts), but it certainly will not stay there. Retaliations for acts against terrorists groups are assured and will be carried out worldwide. Groups will move out of likely hot spots areas and shift their bases to nations across the world regardless of said countries' political affiliations. Military involvement will be spread far and wide, and I'm sure the resulting retaliations (whether by U.S., terrorist or other combatants) will continue to propagate the attitude of the United States as the enemy, the Neo-Gestapo, and the Devil.

The coming conflicts do not bode well for any involved. Lives both innocent and guilty will be lost. Cities will be decimated. Futures will be irrevocably altered.

I fully expect counter claims of an eye for an eye in regards to the terrible losses in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Yet while I feel justice must be served, I do not think the dead call for more to die. I do not think the dead call at all. The statement has been raised that we must retaliate in full force to make an example of those who would do such an act so that such will never be perpatrated again. However, should we retaliate as I fear we will and cost the lives of many, many innocents, I wonder if we as humans are any better than those who took the innocents lives of travelers, workers, and bystanders. It may feel right to stand on our side of the proverbial fence and justify our actions with seemingly righteous reasons, but the people who caused this felt they were acting and dying for equally valid justifications.

There should be an alternate way through this that doesn't involve violence. While I can offer no suggestions at this time, I strongly feel there must be a better way to resolve this conflict. However even if the Tahliban were to turn over Osama Bin Ladin now, I don't it would stop the coming tide of blood.

A sleeping beast has awoken where once there was but a human... and the world will tremble.

- Aaron (is not sure he enjoys living in "interesting times" anymore)

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