:: Closing Time ::

:: Saturday, October 05, 2002 ::

There will be no land war in Iraq. There will be no land "war against terrorism." The term "war" is thrown around. I think President Clinton said it best - if Bush is going to go into Iraq he needs to go in now, and he needs to go in fast. Because that whole fucking campaign is going to be over in three weeks. A week of solid bombing, and two weeks of special forces. They don't draft land troops to clean up the mess, they don't even send the armed forces we already have - they send the highly trained experts. No surprise, if you really think about it.

When I mentioned war, it was not a social commentary - it was a possibility, on the plausible.

I question the stance that many people take that World War III will, if it occurs, be fought with nuclear weapons. This is because, in my opinion, not only is nuclear deterrance extremely effective (everyone knows if they raise that bar.. millions and millions of their people are going to die), but because there is absolutely no point (short of a flawed MDS concept) in planning for such an occurance, because everyone's going to die. A land war, if it's fought, has to then be fought like World War II - not Vietnam. Mr. Tiberio and Mr. Whitbeck both told me something crucial about Vietnam, our most recent major land incursion - because each man served only a one year tour of duty, there was absolutely no incentive to fight bravely, to fight on, or to try and win the war. In World War II you were there until the war ended - so men stepped up and ended it. Hitler would have beaten the US Armed Forces in Vietnam.

That's a real war. If that happens, I'll go, because of king and country. If that happens, I'll go because I know I can help save future lives, because that war isn't going to be stopped (once it starts) by my protesting.

Strive for peace. But don't run from reality. As somebody at the center of thousands of anti-war protesters, that's the biggest problem I seem to find - they don't realize that war is part of the uglyness of humanity. We can't run from it if it comes to us. We can fight it, and we sure as hell won't start it. But if it comes to us.... we've got to deal.

I wish I could write more, but I have to go.
:: Peter 2:01 PM [+] ::
...