evolution

more politics and world events: watching my country’s military begin to take apart saddam’s regime with blinding speed, and hearing the reports of events via fox news, cnn, and the bbc on digital cable (note to all americans: do not get your news from just one source) and the worldwide reaction to them, i began to think.

i think that one day in my lifetime, my country will have to defend herself from a foriegn invasion by a “coalition of the willing” - willing to knock us off the top of the mountain. at least that seems to be the prevailing attitudes of our enemies france and germany, and “friendly” rivals china and russia. i must say i am much more scared of these nations than i ever was of the soviet union. i hope that our relationship with china will grow into a similar sort of thing, without all of the covert actions in countries around the world. unless things take a very dark turn indeed, i do not believe china and america will ever be true enemies - there is simply too much opportunity for gain by both nations to ever risk such a thing. but some of these nations - and many others which i have not named - believe we are too powerful, and seek to undermine us at every turn. i think that the french and germans would fall out of their chairs laughing if iraq managed to start an american bloodbath in the streets of baghdad, all while hiding the deadly weapons everyone knows it has. i think a line is forming behind us to stab us in the back.

but that does not change my belief that saddam must go. it is clear to me that military action is the only action by which this can be accomplished. i ardently hope that there is a minimum of lives lost - both american and iraqi lives - and that this action is over very soon. then we can set about the true work here - reconstituting iraq as a free, democratic, and prosperous nation - which is a responsibility america has taken on now that it has decided to invade, and which it must see through to completion. through this work i hope that we can forge some new, hopefully more reliable friendships in the world.