the sacred cash cow

Iraq and America. Oil and water. Well my bet that protests would start after 2 weeks proved wrong. As you know, protests started within days after the Iraqi people were shown waving American flags. (It was nice to see the practices of the long-oppressed religious freedom but it adds one more to the mix; “will the REAL chosen people please stand up.”)
If I were Iraqi, I would be protesting too. I think lots of Americans would say the same, given our history. The US violently revolted against British occupation in the 18th century. I doubt we’d have it any other way now. As is typical with history, history is nationalized and we romanticize that period of our history while condemning others for similar behavior.
But America isn’t leaving Iraq any time soon. We never intended to. We’ll have a military presence there for years, and we’ll be “looking for WMDs” for equal amounts of time. America established a precedent by invading the mideast; World history shall go the way of Burger King and we will have it our way.
This isn’t bad. After all, I’m American. Secondly, I have to romanticize about the potential that exists in Iraq and that region. How many medical doctors are waiting to happen, how many poets and professors and architects? How much talent, skill, and natural ability is waiting to be discovered and realized, and how shall that impact the world as a whole? That thought is fantastically inspiring to someone like me.
I’m sorry the world is one in which people go to war and die. I’m sorry the world is one in which people can not exclusively address and extinguish all conflict with peaceful compromise. I’m sorry the world is one in which the world is not one. I’m sorry I had to take sides and verbally divide our species, but conflict occurs constantly in nature and from that conflict often is born the most beautiful things. (Look at the Hawaiin island paradise and the volcanic eruptions that created that.) I am not sorry for the way that I hoped for quick defeat, exclusively as a lesser of 2 evils. From the Iraqi war too something really beautiful may grow.
Not an optimist; a believer,
Rick