Not looking to alarm anyone or anything, but...

Shit is fucked up right now. Venezuela is, as we speak, being systematically converted to a totalitarian dictatorship under the guise of socialism. Soldiers and civilians are dying daily in Iraq. Iran is giving the entire world the middle finger. Oh, and the economies of the two superpowers of the world (China and the US) are suddenly on the verge of collapse.

Now, if that sounds a bit doomsday, well, tough I guess because it's basically true. The world is crazy right now. Of course, this is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that the world has been seemingly off it's rocker. It just seems, at least to many in my generation, that things have gotten really bad. You have to remember, that I was born, just after the Vietnam war ended. I grew up watching the US get stronger and our biggest enemy at the time, the USSR, get weaker and eventually completely collapse. The first "war" that I witnessed was Desert Storm. I'd seen harder fought football games for cripes' sake.

This, though...this is different. When it was just the US and the USSR at odds, things seemed simple. There was a clear enemy. Sure, there was the threat of a horrific nuclear holocaust erupting at any time, but there was always a certain sense that it would never happen. Why? Because you knew that deep down, just like us, the Soviets wanted to live. Not so now. We are fighting against people that hate us and our way of life passionately and not only are they not afraid of dying...they look forward to it! Virgins await them in heaven. I don't know about you, but I think that is some scary shit. How do you win against someone that has nothing to lose. How do you reason with a man who's one goal in life is to blow himself up and take a few Americans with him?

I wish I had answers. What I can say is that I don't feel like we've reacted particularly well to the situation. We (by we I mean our government) used 9/11 to go on the offensive. We'd been hit, hard, and God-dammit if we weren't going to knock someone the fuck out. Saddam Hussein happened to fall in the crosshairs. Was he a bad guy? Absolutely. Did he deserve to be punished for what he did to his people? Definitely. Did we have any reason to invade his country after 9/11? Not so far as I can tell.

But invade we did. And there we remain. Fighting an enemy that may very well be shooting at our soldiers with weapons we sold them in the 80's. Ironic how that works out sometimes. I have nothing but respect for the people who serve in the Armed Forces. Hell, I tried to join the Air Force in my youth. (Who knew that eczema is a disqualifying condition?) I just feel like they're being forced to fight and die for the wrong reasons.

Of course, we can't just walk away now. We're in too deep. If we left Iraq now, the already shaky governmental structure would collapse entirely and a new Saddam would step in in short order. Either that, or Iran would waltz in and take over the place. It's become a lose-lose situation. Damned if we leave, damned if we stay...either way, I'm not going to feel any safer.