I HATE JOHN'S D-LANDS. Don't get me wrong; I do not agree with Emily Baum's Anti-war views. She is, as far as I can tell, on one extreme end of the spectrum while John is on the other, and I usually don't care for extreme views (even though, to be a hypocrite, some of mine on certain issues are). However, while Emily presents her views in a reasonable and civil fashion, making her views only slightly disagreeable, John is so unbelieveably pretentious that I am forced to believe that he is nothing short of an arrogant, stuck-up prick. And what the hell is it with all of this over-simplification and labeling Iraq as "evil"? No, no, Saddam's not good. But the arch-type battle between good and evil is so absurd. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL; really, all battles are between one group's opinion and another - nothing more. Anyone who feels the need to over-simplify things and refer to something simply as "evil" (like when Bush made his "Axis of Evil" comment) is, quite frankly, an idiot.
And, for the record, I firmly believe that there are rather sinister ulterior motives behind this war. Granted, they are not the only reasons, but certain points lead one to expect the worst. Consider the following:
(1) Bush is clearly pro-oil; he was an oil tycoon himself, and he probably believes that oil will solve all of the world's problems.
(2) Prior to September 11th, the United States had plans for a massive oil pipeline in the Middle East. According to the plans, a major portion of said pipeline would be required to run geographically through the nation of Afghanistan. Of course, the Taliban regime would have never, ever agreed to such blasphemy.
(3) Al-qaeda attacks America on September 11th. Information was gathered on this organization for quite some time before hand. The Bush administration clearly understood that this was an international organization with the now infamous "cells" in key locations throughout the globe, not just in back-water Afghanistan. The Bush adminstration also understood that any efforts made to capture Osama bin Laden would, ultimately, be futile; while such capture would provide the American people with a clear and easily identifiable scapegoat, his leadership could have easily been replaced by any number of Al-Qaeda higher ups.
(3) Nevertheless, instead of searching for Al-Qaeda cells which were closer to home, Bush uses this as an excellent opportunity (and excuse) to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban.
(4) Karzai's current government does not reject any any plans for a pipeline through Afghanistan.
(5) Today, Iraq is one of the largest providers of oil in the Middle East (and, therefore, the world), second perhaps only to Saudi Arabia.
(6) UN Weapons inspectors, if used properly (and there are, believe it or not, ways of making them work, if one truly wants them to; one can send them in with additional armed forces who will not attack but instead look very ominous, motivating Iraq to back down; several US senators and other foreign leaders have supported this approach) can do an excellent job of keeping weapons out of Iraq. Of course, it is not there job to make Saddam give the US oil.
(7) The only surefire way to ensure that America gets access to Iraqi oil is the "regime change" that Bush, and only Bush, wants so much.
... and I'm tired. I'll stop here for now. If you want to take a go at me, knock yourself out; you know where to reach me.