EVE OF DESTRUCTION
Submitted March 18, 2003 (not published)

First, I should acknowledge for the last time that technically there's still a chance to avoid war with Iraq. Just because Rumsfeld started an office pool (in early December - and guess who took the week of March 17th?), and Cheney was seen wearing a "Kill 'Em All, Let Allah Sort It Out" t-shirt to his most recent NSA briefing, doesn't mean the administration isn't serious about going the last extra mile with diplomacy. And Hussein's still got another day or two to leave voluntarily, although France would probably figure out some way to veto that, too.

That said, all the polls show the American people are ready for war. My sense is we're more exhausted than enthused. Even though no one's tops CNN when it comes to the soft-fuzzy weapon system profile, or out-sneers and out-mocks Fox., we've long since passed the point of anything new being said. Pro, con, or neocon, the only people still undecided are the chronically indecisive. If this describes you, proceed directly to the U.N.

Personally, I'm in a quandary. As much as I want the entire domestic agenda of this President to fail, and even though I know it's not likely to fill Mr. Bush with a renewed sense of humility and self-examination, I want the war to succeed unconditionally. I'm hoping it's over faster than Kim Jong Ill can say "re-processing plant". Forty-eight hours of shock and awe, followed by men shaving their mustaches, women dancing in the streets, and Hussein on his way to Camaroon, French Guinea, or perhaps a Mercedes dealership in Montreal. But that's not to say I'm in favor of the policy. There's clearly a design flaw in the concept of advancing American values like liberty, democracy, and self-determination through the pre-emptive use of overwhelming military force.

The only thing clearer to me is how little what I or you or anyone else thinks about all this matters anyway, since in it's modest opinion, the administration has already thought of everything. And so I sit here, on the eve of Hussein's destruction, simultaneously wishing my political opponents a resounding triumph and dreading the consequences. War tends to bring out the very worst in everyone, countries as well as people. For most Americans, this truth is now symbolized by the French. But the rising tide of jingoism within our own borders isn't any more encouraging. I can't help but wonder how the Hopi must feel every time they hear how, if it wasn't for the Americans, those pansy Frogs would be speaking German right now. Would it be unpatrioitic if it crossed their minds that, if not for the same "Americans", they might be speaking Hopi?

The United States has no choice but to exercise her current role as the world's only superpower, but claiming (or worse, believing) that our greatness manifests directly from our unblemished record of goodness promises to be counterproductive in a world as diverse as it is dangerous. And how exactly does this make us any better than the French, who've perfected the art of feeling good about themselves primarily by feeling superior to everyone else? No one likes a sore winner.

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