recapping

I was never a fan of the Iraq war. No, this is an understatement if I've ever made one. I thought the war was horribly misguided, an exercise in hubris, ego, and idiocy, more motivated by W. trying to outdo his dad than by any actual strategic need.

I got an actual hint of this the first time time I flew after 9/11. I was sitting in the airport bar drinking a Bloody Mary (as is my wont), when a guy took the bar stool next to me. We started talking, and I learned 1) he was a Merchant Marine, 2) he hadn't had a beer in over six months, 3) he had been hauling military gear and weaponry to the middle East for the duration of his deployment, and 4) the flow of arms began about a week after 9/11, almost as if (in his words) "that bastard Bush had been just waiting for an excuse."

This struck a nerve in me, because people were already dying, and as a military brat, I knew it would be people in the same position my dad was in decades earlier who would be doing the dying...on our side, at any rate. I knew a sizeably larger numbers of Iraqis would be dying, and their plight would be mostly ignored in the country of the invader.

So I have strong feelings on the matter. But they are largely just that, feelings. A more logical recap of the war will hold more weight with most people. So, when I ran across the article The Ultimate 'What If'; A World Where America Never Invaded Iraq, I knew I had to share it.

And I swear, after reading it, I'm even angrier now.