I do not trust my government. I do not trust the media. Osama bin Laden is dead. Osama bin Laden is alive. We’re going to war. We’re not going to war. Be scared of terrorism. Be more afraid, like code-red afraid. Worry about anthrax. Fret about smallpox. Fear the thug in Iraq. Ignore the dictator from North Korea. Forget about corporate crimes. Disregard the faltering economy.

I consume the news in disbelief. The American people — fooled by the president’s arrogant preaching — overlook his hypocritical message: we will use our weapons of mass destruction if Saddam doesn’t get rid of his.

Why doesn’t anyone tell us to disarm?

When we go to war, we become the terrorists. Thousands — or hundreds of thousands — of innocent Iraqi civilians will die. Our smart bombs will cause carnage. Our missiles will knock down apartments, hospitals, and mosques. Our artillery will destroy neighborhoods. Our bullets will murder the blameless. Our actions will obliterate a country and further destabilize a region already filled with people who hate America. Our brutality will trigger more violence from our enemies.

If the US military’s exploits in Afghanistan are any indication, Saddam will survive unscathed, just as he did after battling Bush’s father. He is a man surrounded by doubles and look-alikes. How will we know if we ever get the real Saddam? He will become a secular bin Laden, taunting us from an undisclosed location while his surrogates wage a war of terror the United States is not prepared to fight.

The armed forces have begun the grand migration of personnel and equipment for Gulf War Two. The pollsters wonder if the American public can handle casualties. The more realistic question, though, is whether we understand that most of our deaths will be the result of accidents, blunders, or mathematical errors.

That’s what we forget during these days of patriotic fervor and militaristic boosterism: we can kick Saddam’s ass, but not without mistakes. Remember, most of the American casualties in the first Gulf War were the result of " friendly fire, " the polite way of saying, " We fucked up. " It’s unpatriotic to discuss the incompetence of the armed forces. We’re led to believe that our crack troops are perfect and strong. But most of today’s sailors and soldiers volunteered during peacetime. And these inexperienced warriors will be almost worthless in the battles that follow the initial high-tech bloodbath.

Bush is using Saddam to distract Americans. Bush and his handlers have hypnotized the masses into believing Iraq is our worst enemy. He doesn’t want us to realize it’s almost impossible to beat the small cells of militants — armed with box cutters and airplanes — who infiltrate our society. Instead, he wants us to focus on a traditional foe with borders and buildings, on a tangible measure of alleged success and on kill rates.

Although he claims to be a Christian, Bush’s war-mongering shows he’s just a poser with a Bible. I’m pretty damn sure Jesus wouldn’t recommend slaughtering a country in order to punish its leader. I don’t think the Savior would agree with our weapons strategies, or our willingness to fight over oil or to wage war in order to revitalize the sagging defense industry.

We need to seek peace. It’s as simple as that. Every other option is complicated and painful. But easy changes to our foreign policy could defuse global conflict. We need to eliminate our dependence on oil. Remove our troops from countries where they’re not welcome. Stop giving despots guns and money and biological poisons. Disarm all nuclear weapons on the planet. Stop playing these war games that will haunt us forever.

Back to the Thoughts on going to war index.