The War Continues

I moved to the NYC area the year after the September 11th attacks (Even though almost everyone I knew thought I should reconsider I felt right about it. Still do btw) so I’ve been here for every remembrance. This year is the first year that people seem to have really moved on, of course people are still showing respect for the lives lost but there wasn’t that heavy sense of sadness in the local media and I didn’t hear people in the streets talking about it as much as I have in other years. Instead of mourning the news programs focused much of their coverage on the ongoing war in the Iraq, the overall turmoil in the Middle East and the United States dependence on foreign fuel resources.

Yesterday General David Petraeus appeared before a meeting of the members of the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees and detailed the war’s progress. Petraeus mentioned that troop withdrawal will initiate something in the next month or so in small amounts with the hope that as much as 30 thousand will be home by next summer. Still that leaves over 100,000 men and women over there battling in a war without a real objective.

After 9/11 there was such a wave of patriotism and there was this thought that America would be avenged for the attacks but here we are six years later and I don’t think any of us feel any real sense of satisfaction. Furthermore very few people buy the fact that the US is over there trying to build democracy. By now even the most consistent defenders of the war will admit that America’s main reason over there is the procurement of more and more oil. To control the marketplace to ensure that the US’s insatiable demand for fuel is met. Now why is this so important to the Bush administration? Because the big time Oil companies financed his career. And even in this day and age of environmental awareness few people have the balls and the power to combat them. Iraq has approximately 100 billion barrels of crude oil and Exxon, etc want a piece of it. And until we are able to control this area of the world we can’t get to it and so we stay.
Now how specifically does this affect us? Well for one it beneficial to keep pounding home the threat of future attacks and giving credence to certain stereotypes in order to fuel those generalities. Now are all Muslims involved in terrorism? Most people will say no but there are still a lot of people who say yes if only that they hear it so much. Now for those out there who have names like yours truly it can be a minor annoyance, one which I accept usually. The real problem with these stereotypes is that they lead to fear and that leads to voters putting in office the people who they believe will protect them. Whether that is true or whether that person is competent enough to hold office is another story. Just as long as the perception says they are that’s good enough for most people.

The real problem is that money that can be used to maintain life at home is going to waste. I understand the need for the military, as sometimes war is necessary. But when it is not it should not be used because real lives are at stake. In the meantime money is being funneled away from things like ensuring that our import market is well monitored (the situation with China right now and the lead paint covered toys is a great example of that). Not to mention immigration, gun control, health care, stem cell research, etc. Please remember all of this the next time someone is defending the war. Tell them they are full of shit.