Larry.org

So last night (below) I went off on why I'm against this war but supporting the troops. Pretty long screed and obviously a lot of stuff I was trying to resolve in my own head.



I've been spending the day thinking about what else we could have reasonably done to affect regime change in that country short of military force.



I've not come up with anything.



I'm clearly not as smart as the folks that were trying to come up with something.



Maybe force is the only way now. Not that it really matters, as it's the way we've gone.



I guess I just don't want to stop trying to think of new non-violent means because a) I hate war b) I don't like the idea that we're becoming a country that can just beat the shit out of anyone that we think might threaten us and c) I don't think we really tried as hard as we, the US, could have to get what we need without force.



So am I against the war, hell I don't know. I guess it will depend on weather they uncover significant weapons of mass destruction, how much damage we do Iraq as a whole and what we do after it's over both in terms of rebuilding and repeating this type of foreign policy with a different enemy.



So it's pretty weak to say that I'm going to wait and see how it turns out and then decide for sure. So given a one or the other, bottom line, gun to my head choice, I'm against the war. I'm not convinced that spending lives right now in this specific way will improve our safety long-term or short term. I believe this cost far outweighs the perceived benefits.



Proving WMD will certainly help convince me that this war was necessary, but I don't think it will convince me that the war was necessary right now. I'd need to not only see that WMD were being produced and hidden, but also that they were going to be used in the immediate future had we not intervened.