Monday, July 17, 2006

"It's the end of the world as we know it..."

The news is so depressing and scary lately. I watch it constantly at work, and it horrifies me. While I don’t share the apocalyptic views of some of the ultra Christians I hear about on TV, I do find the Middle East situation terrifying. It makes it worse that we (Americans) can’t seem to quit mucking about in the area. Maybe the trouble in Iraq isn't part of this, but our blundering presence can't be all that helpful. Plus, we are so pushy about everything. In the same 15-minute news segment, I hear that we’re advocating two groups of “multi-nation peace-keeping troops” but at the same time making clear that we are in no way going to provide any of those troops. It strikes me as breath-taking arrogance to insist on a plan that everyone else is supposed to follow, but refusing to commit our own troops to help. What kind of bossy country are we?

I was angry to hear that our citizens were being forced to agree to pay for their evacuations from Lebanon. I believe that one of the reasons our government exists is to protect its citizens. What the hell happened to “for the people?” We can spend millions on bombs, but we can’t afford to remove our own people from dangerous situations? Since when did bombs become more important than people? What if people can't afford to pay whatever the government decides to charge?

Several Democrats went on record promising to push a bill through Congress that would change the law that caused this whole issue, but I have to wonder why it took a situation like this one before the law became a problem. Much as I would like to believe that the Democrats have the best interests of all the eveacuees at heart, I remain cynical. It seems unlikely that the chance to show up the Republicans had nothing to do with the quick response of these polititions.

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