Orange clashes with my red, white, and blue

[mithriltabby]

The terrorist threat level gets upgraded to Orange. What does this mean for average citizens? Continue about your daily routine while feeling more paranoid, so you’ll feel better about declaring war on Iraq. Bah.

Why is war such a boolean thing? Is there nothing short of war that can take Saddam Hussein’s toys away from him, since he won’t play nice? Why can’t the UN just say: “Since you guys are apparently hiding things from our inspectors, we’re going to start ‘inspecting’ sites by targeting them with bombs. We’ll let you know which ones, so you can evacuate your people, but anything leaving the buildings other than people on foot will be destroyed.”?

I find the “regime change” rhetoric particularly hypocritical. Why should Iraq get special treatment? It’s not like Saddam Hussein has a monopoly on barbaric behavior toward his own people. (The answer seems to be “because Iraq has vast oil reserves, and other countries run by harsh dictators don’t.” Harrumph.)

Comments

How much are hazmat suits these days?

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Working in the computer science department puts me in contact with a lot of people from India and Pakistan... and they tell me that Americans don't know squat from terrorism. Imagine if we had to put up with what they put up with.
Just took a poll on the subject of war (oprah winfrey site, god help us) and though many people have doubts about the subject, most polled want war.
Looks like we might have to lose a few troops to remind people that war is about killing other people, not some abstract video-game concept....