Today I was trapped for two hours in a doctor’s office (see why), forced to watch Dan Rather on CBS and his merry band of talking heads discussing the war. They kept rehashing what little information there was at this stage of the conflict. They managed to over-analyze the data as if they were planning the strategy of the war themselves. They droned on and on about minutia. I can’t believe they preempted the NCAA basketball tournament. If I was a basketball fan, I would have been furious. I guess you know which channel I won’t be watching for my war news.
Looks like spring is here in central Oklahoma. The dogwood trees started blooming two or three days ago. Many types of grasses have greened up. And today, I noticed that first hint of green on a lot of the trees. Although the skies were gray today (and despite the news of the war), my heart was lifted with the anticipation of warmer weather, green trees, and summer vacation.
As so happens, today is the official beginning of Spring, i.e. the Vernal Equinox. Hooray!
I was playing with my five-month old baby son this afternoon. He has a tickle spot on his chest near his arms and neck. He bunches up, smiles, and squeaks a bit with just a hint of giggles.
I imagine there is a father in Baghdad playing with his son today too. And he is wondering if he will be able to play with his son again tomorrow. I hope so.
Have you played with your kids today? (Or at least gave them a hug?)
President Bush has backed Saddam Hussein into a corner. Saddam has demonstrated that he can be ruthless in the treatment of his enemies and to his own people. For the last 15-20 years, he has tried to develop and obtain weapons of mass destruction, from biological and chemical to nuclear. After the Gulf War in 1991, the United Nations inspectors had found evidence of the biological and chemical weapons, and discovered attempts to develop a nuclear device.
My imagination has haunted me over what could happen. Here is a list of some of my worst-case scenarios.
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President Bush is playing a game of high stakes poker. He has bet his political career, his administration, his place in history, and the future of American foreign policy and position on the world scene all on this showdown with Saddam Hussein.
All of the small countries around the world, (including the European Union) are not sure what to think of the United States now. The Soviet Union was another “big kid” on the block that helped keep the balance of power. Now that the Soviet Union has dissolved, America is the only “big kid” left. To the small countries, the “big kid” is now picking on one of their own. And no one is around to stop the him. (France and Germany tried.) Every leader of a small country is now thinking about how far can they go without pissing off the Americans before they come in and get him.
It has been reported that all of the countries around Iraq agree that the region would probably be better off without Saddam Hussein, but who gave the right to the Americans to oust him?
From the perspective of the North Koreans, I don’t blame them for starting up their nuclear reactor again and testing a few of their missles. They think that they’re next on America’s list. Didn’t President Bush list them as one of the nations belonging to the “axis of evil” after September 11th?
And what about our close friends in this game of poker. In the past several months, the relationships between America and its allies have been highly strained, more so than any other time since the end of World War II. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has staked his political career in this too. He has ante upped the stakes right along with Bush.
War is imminent. President Bush may win this hand of poker, but in the end, will America loose the poker game?