The Here and Now

I woke up this morning, looking outside the window, something just didn't seem right about the day. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, was it the weather -- no, not really, the sky was clear, and there were hardly any clouds in the sky. I wondered why the air had a strange tense atmosphere about it, something was definately out of place. Thinking the vodka I had the night before was playing tricks with my mind, I drove to work, singing along to a little diddly called Wake Up, by Rage Against the Machine, in my car. Upon getting to work, there was a strange cloud of confusion and pallor upon my colleagues. "What's the matter", I had inquired, why the pale looks on your faces. "Don't you know", they replied, "this morning, we went to war". Thinking that it was old news, "I know, we've been at war for years now, Iraq, Afghanistan, hell, if you want to stretch it out, against Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Drugs, Prostitution..." "No, I was told, we just went to war with Iran, it's big news, apparently, we've just released a nuclear weapon".

A nuclear weapon? How could it lead to this? What possible road have we taken that resulted in another catastrophic act of nuclear death upon civilians?

Well, as it turned out, Israel had taken it upon themselves to launch a pre-emptive strike upon Iran's Nuclear Facilities, and as an act of retaliation, Iran had launched missiles towards major Israeli populated areas. Considering the devestation this had caused, the United States had in turn, launched "low-yield" nuclear missiles against multiple Iranian targets. We were fully entrenched in WWIII, and the war was just beginning. With our resources stretched thin as it is, and the apathy the world had garnered towards our aggressiveness, we were on our own (save a few dependent nations).

Think this scenario is impossible? Don't hold your collective breath. This is indeed the direction we have been headed in for the past 6 years. The plans to dominate the Middle Eastern region aggressively and forcefully, were in place before 9-11. These are acts of Tyrranical rulers, believing their God would protect them against the heathens. I am not talking about fundamentalist Islam, but in this instance, fundamentalist Christians and Zionists (no, not Jews, but fundamentalist Zionists, yes, there is a distinction). The belief that through the strength of God's/Christ's Will, the victors will fight the moral victory, there is very little rational reasoning that could possibly supplant these fanatical thoughts. When faith overtakes reason, people suffer. As simple as that.

Perhaps the apathy we have garnered through all these years of complacency, has resulted in our weakened perspective in the world. We take many things for granted, believing that our elected officials have the best interest of the public, thinking that democracy will protect us. We don't realize the wool that's been pulled over our eyes, because we refuse to understand implications of our actions. A wise man, 2300 years ago, by the name of Plato once warned about the pitfalls of Democracy. In the Republic, Plato states that if citizens in a Democracy become complacent, the leaders they believe they've elected will become tyrranical under the apathy of the collective public.

Pessimists may say, what's the point of all this conjecture, the seeds are sewn, and it may all be too late. The fact is, perhaps the gears in the watch have begun to move, perhaps WWIII is inevitable, but that doesn't mean we must stand by and allow it to happen in full force.

At the very least, we must understand the possible scenarios of our actions and attempt to dissent against tyrrany.

The way I see it, what we need is a transparent government, that doesn't hold closed door session, and I don't care how Democratic we think we are, we must have true choices in our elected officials. Elected officials should not receive salaries, but should rule based on merit and honor. They would of course be provided with housing and food, but no corporate jets, no million dollar estates. If they are true representatives of the people, they must commit to the terms they were elected for. True leadership would still emerge under these guidelines, and we can only hope that our course of action would become based on critical thinking and rationality, instead of faith and emotional overreaction (based on fear and anger).

One final food for thought; the wars we don't speak of, were the wars that were prevented before they started. During the Cold War for example, as recent Soviet and American Classified documents have attested, many instances of near nuclear annhilation or at the least a new World War were narrowly averted. As humanity continued it's future march, those potential wars were never mentioned again. Countless wars have and will be prevented through the course of human history, let us hope this upcoming one is among those.