Scary Stuff, Man

This is just scary to me. How are we supposed to be this conquering nation if defense spending is lower than it's been in years? Plus, Bush spends the first part of his administration isolating our country and pulling out of international treaties, then starts declaring the US's right to attack at will and dictate the governments of other countries? WTF? Where the hell does he get off? We may be big badasses, but if every other country in the world gets too pissed off with us, I don't think we could effectively protect ourselves. I just don't see the diplomacy here. The reason I comment so much on the upcoming war is that I'm afraid. I think we should all be afraid of the threat of war. We, the contiguous USA, are not safe from direct attack. It's been made plain that I live in a first-strike area. Back in 1990, when Bush Senior was waging war in the Middle East, the US sat back, as if drugged into complacency by carefully engineered media broadcasts about "Desert Storm," casually displaying yellow ribbons for soldiers they weren't really all that worried about. After all, the memories of Vietnam were fading, and this war seemed so clean. Well, war isn't clean, and I don't personally cotton to the idea of dying in one. Just ask any surviving residents of My Lai or villagers in Afghanistan how easy it is for civilians to be brought into the fray. I'm tired of nobody talking about how wrong this is. And why Iraq? At the same time that the country that harbored, abetted, and financed the terrorists who actually attacked our country are favored guests at the White House, the country that has conceded to allow inspectors back into its country, the country that backed down in the face of threats, is being targeted. Is starting a war with Iraq really the number one priority for the United States? Because if it is, we should probably get on a war footing and stop thinking we can launch a full-scale war without the funding and training we need. Jeez.

Again, sorry for the political tirades, but I don't think it's a good idea to keep our heads in the sand on this one.