A Response

As I expected, I was fairly unhappy with my last attempt to explain myself, so I'm going to try again. This time, I'll respond to each of several points recently made by Jason Kottke.

Saddam Hussein needs to be removed from Iraq. The world will be a safer place when he is in control of nothing more than his personal free time. He has become a powerful multi-billionaire on the backs of the Iraqi people. The only way to remove him is with force; he's not going to leave by choice.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. All of these things are true, and I don't think that most people in their right minds would disagree.

The U.S. has done an absolutely awful job in explaining the reasons for this war to its citizens and to the other countries of the world.

This is why so many people are unable to support this war. Being that the Bush administration's credibility is so far in the crapper at this point, though, I'm not sure if they could ever satisfactorily explain why they want so badly to go to war. Which is precisely why it's so important that there be a large coalition of nations backing military force before it goes ahead (and not just ones that have been bought).

The bottom line is, the U.S. isn't going to war with Iraq for altruistic reasons, no matter what we say. Everything the leaders of the United States have ever done, from the Revolutionary War right up to the present, they have done for money and power.

Damn straight. It just seems like we were being altruistic for the first 175 years of our nation's history (notwithstanding some notable exceptions).

Just as unconvincing as Bush's flimsy arguments for war have been the arguments from the other side for peace.

Yeah, I grudgingly accept this, which is why I've been hesitant to attend any war protests. I've grappled with the question of whether I could ever support any war, and I'm a little surprised to say that my answer is yes. It should be an absolutely final and last resort, however, and I don't think that the US has done everything it could to avoid this one.

I think very little of George W. Bush as the leader of my country. ... Bush is leading the U.S. like a large, soulless corporation, which if you know how I feel about large, soulless corporations, is about the most damning thing I can say about him.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I agree with the first part of this statement; I think that Bush's presidency will go down as one of the most disastrous in history, right up there with Andrew Johnson and Herbert Hoover. I don't think that he sees the US as a "large, soulless corporation," though: I think he sees himself as the soul, the moral compass that must guide the world to a "promised land," and that all nonbelievers can go to hell.

Journalism has always been -- and still is -- about money.

Yeah, most journalism is about money. There are idealists out there, though, and there are those that play the game long enough to get to a position to make the truth known. Which is why the minority voice is so important. Read everything, but don't believe everything you read.

Most webloggers "covering" the current situation are either peace advocates unwilling to enter into a debate (see above) or too busy whipping each other into a hawkish frenzy in the pursuit of getting linked...

Guilty as charged. I have no defense.

Everyone, from the U.S. gov't to France all the way down to little old me, is being hypocritical about this whole thing. ... People, corporations, groups, and countries can't be entirely self-consistent with their views & beliefs and still function.

Again, guilty. I've probably contradicted myself several times in this post alone, if for no other reason that I can't keep all the arguments in my head at once. "All the arguments out there for and against are necessarily shallow," says Jason, and it's true. Nobody can keep everything straight, and what someone says or does at any particular time is a function of their current state of mind. All we can do is strive for consistency.

So, to sum up what I'm saying, Bush very bad, war very bad, this war bad right now.

All that being said (and here's where I come in with some hypocrisy of my own), there will be a walkout on campus at 3 PM "the day after the bombs start falling." I can't not go.