Of Scuds and Sarin

Say what, Mr. President? We're going to do what? Without whose approval? Our decisions are based on how much evidence? Blame it on my pietist background, or my bleeding heart, Peace Corps serving, hippie mentality, or just on a higher sense of order, but I am wondering what in the world our executive leadership is thinking when they threaten to take unilateral action against a Middle-Eastern nation with controvertible evidence of wrongdoing. Even our current president, who has, for many of us, been a symbol of deference and reason, stands in total contradiction to his rhetoric during the early days of the Iraqi conflict. I'm disappointed, and I hope others are, when they hear our leaders say, "We have evidence, some of which we can share with the public, which strongly suggests wrongdoing." Be wary, very wary of this talk, especially when it hearkens back so ominously to the trillion dollar incursion that we are still cleaning up from, a recent conflict that, it can be compellingly argued, created more destruction than it helped to avoid. If we cannot learn from Vietnam, or use the War Powers Act as a tool to avoid the same mistakes, then what is this great civilization able to learn from? If we cannot wait to get confirmation from inspectors, or until other nations join ranks to say that strikes are necessary, what collective self restraint do we have? When other nations choose to wait for evidence of chemical weapons and just where they came from, and the United States' leaders choose to move forward, we are demonstrating collective arrogance and disdain for the judgement of all of our 'allies' throughout the international community. I don't get mad much, because I just don't see the point, but this kind of senselessness from politicians really angers me. Don't tell me about your civil order or how we should appeal to higher angels when you will take life and order so lightly as to jump into another conflict. Chemical weapons and despots should not exist, but neither should African genocide or abject poverty, but somehow the dull ache of hunger and systemic hate isn't as sexy as unilaterally blasting away a possible occurence of chemical warfare.