doodledee

Well, apparently tomorrow represents The Moment of Truth. You had to figure that if Bush & Co were really determined to go to war that it was gonna have to start before the end of March. After March, the climate in that area gets so hot and windy and dirty that it becomes a pain in the ass to wage a war. Especially if you have a lot of mechanical equipment with complex moving parts - *cough* helicopters *cough* - and doubly especially if you have to wage it wearing an airtight body suit to keep you from being killed by poison gas.

So a quick check of the calendar shows that, yep, it's March. And another check of the headlines and, yep, it's time to get your war on.

Here's a recap of the Rush to War and some thoughts about why it drives me crazy.

Last fall, the US talked tough and got the UN Security Council to pass resolution 1441, which reemphasized how much the world really, really, really wants Saddam to disarm. The resolution had all kinds of strong language instructing Saddam to fess up to what he's been up to, telling him to prepare for a new round of inspections, and - most importantly - laying the groundwork for what will happen if he doesn't cooperate.

Cue the inspectors. Witness chief inspector Hans Blix at the UN, reporting on his findings. Witness Colin Powell presenting hours and hours of evidence to his Security Council colleagues, insisting that Iraq is in violation of the resolution. Witness millions of people taking to the streets to protest the coming war.

Now it gets messy.

A lot of the evidence that Powell presented seems to be at least questionable [see Northern Iraqi poison factory], and in some cases, simply incorrect [see uranium purchases]. But then again, the inspectors did actually find a few missiles that are illegal under previously existing UN resolutions - and that Saddam forgot to mention in his 'full reports' - so maybe there's a case to be made after all.

Deep down I was hoping that the inspectors would find something huge. Like maybe a bunker with a couple nukes in it or something. Barring that, I wanted the evidence that the US presented to be unbelievably solid. None of this fuzzy half-truth crap that the conspiracy theory crowd can't get enough of. I wanted something solid.

I didn't get it.

But apparently the US and Britain (and Spain, and more!) had seen enough. They've been back at the UN asking for a resolution authorizing the use of military force to disarm Saddam.

They didn't get it.

This all leaves us with a big ugly mess. We've got a quarter of a million troops ready to march into Iraq. We've got a world divided. We've got a new foreign policy - based on preemptive military action - that represents a complete paradigm shift for our country. We've got junior high school students walking out of class and trying to use words like 'jingoism' when they're interviewed for the school paper. And we've got yard signs. Lord, do we have yard signs.

Not unlike asking a girl out on a date, this is one of those times where you want to know how it's going to end before it even starts. If we leave Saddam alone, will he mellow-out in his old age? Or will he funnel a small nuke to a terrorist group so they can set it off in midtown Manhattan? Will he have learned his lesson? Will that be the lesson we wanted him to learn? There's just no frickin' answer.

Unfortunately, I don't think the US and Iraq have a mutual friend, so we won't get to find out if Saddam just 'hates us' or if he 'hate, hates us'. Either way, if/when we start dropping bombs on his house, I bet he stops inviting us to his birthday party.