The War Entry

April 18, 2003 - 11:50 p.m.

Last Five Entries:
The Party's Over
July 11, 2004
The Next Day
2004-03-31
My Nervous Breakdown
2004-03-30
True Confessions: My Life as a Female Impersonator
March 15, 2004
Bite Me
February 29, 2004

Contact:

I started to write an entry about this whole war in Iraq. I read and hear things every day that just grate my nerves, or make me shiver.

I started on it twice, and each time I started going into detail, explaining how Americans are less safe now, how the Iraqis are actually worse off, how this war is going to set off dominoes of violence around it.

And each time I started this I went into detail, because the prevailing attitude that comes down from the top of the American government is simplistic, and dangerous in its simplicity. And, from school, I have a ton of background in peace studies to help show why the American government is just plain wrong, on many levels.

And each attempted entry got more detailed and more detailed, because I was determined that I would absolutely convince anyone who reads this that the war was not only morally wrong, but bad for the U.S.

But I stopped writing that entry, which would have been a wonderful anti-war essay. It would have been good for anti-war protestors too, who often over-simplify the war and may have contributed unwittingly to American support for war.

And the reason I stopped writing that entry is this: What's the point? The war has happened, it's too late to unring that bell. More terrorism, violence internally in Iraq, externally in the region- those things are in motion. Even if anything could be done to dampen that, the president doesn't listen to to anyone who doesn't already agree with him- not citizens, not even his own staff who have different views. And no matter how eloquent I am, I'll just get a hundred responses that just tell me how unpatriotic, or stupid, I am. (Okay, not that many people read this diary. I might get one response from someone who meant to click on dailysexxx.diaryland.com.) And in the meantime, people die.

So there's just no point to it really. What's happening is happening with or without me. All I'll get for saying anything is a few insults, a wiretap (courtesy of John Ashcroft), and maybe someone will blow me up to protest American imperialism.