It’s not easy being pro-war: a vlog
: I’ve just done another video post (vlog), this one about being pro-war.
The full text is below.
Normally, I put these on Screenblast but I can’t upload to it today. So I’m going to risk putting this on two sets of servers. Since there’s not much to see (just me) try the dialup version; if that’s too awful, try the others.
Server 1: Real dialup … Real high-speed … Windows high-speed
Server 2: Real dialup … Real high-speed … Windows high-speed
Transcript:
It’s not easy being pro-war.
Don’t think for a second that I’m enjoying my membership in the Donald Rumsfeld fan club.
In fact, I think that George Bush did a terrible job making the case for this war — to us and to the world.
Bush screwed up the diplomatic alternative — and the only thing that saves him is that Jacques Chirac screwed it up worse.
And I’m hardly a hawk. I spent most of my life as a Vietnam-induced pacifist. Thanks to a lucky lottery number — the only lottery I’ve ever played — I never had to choose between Canada and jail. Instead, I went on Moratorium marches. I wore peace signs.
But now I’m wearing the American flag — and waving an M-16.
And that is because, on September 11th, men fueled by hate tried to kill me and did kill thousands around me just because of who we are — American — and who we are not — Muslim.
I faced evil that day. I met my generation’s Hitler. And I soon realized that I had no choice but to support force against such a force.
I’m not saying that Saddam Hussein was responsible for that attack. I’m saying that I lost my pacifism that day and so, I now have to make an honest choice about supporting force or not, supporting the President or not, defeating Saddam or not.
And I’ve decided that as with Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, and Adolf Hitler, we bear a responsibility to defeat tyranny and to free its prisoners.
But do not think that I come to this decision with glee. I am torn apart about resorting to sin to fight sin. I miss the apparent moral clarity of my former anti-war confreres. I dislike the moral smugness of my new pro-war confederates. I was appalled the other day when a newspaper called me “conservative” just because I am not anti-war in my weblog.
Do not paint me with your Dr. Strangelove brush. Do not think that by choosing to support this war in Iraq, I am conservative, or bloodthirsty, or happy about it. This was a hard decision.
It’s not easy being pro-war.
: Gray — a regular reader from Russia — posts his response in Russian and English. This is what makes the Internet so f’ing wonderful. This is what will fix the world.
