Wednesday, March 30, 2011

WHOM TO TRUST?

Are you sick of Libya and Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan? I am. Jesus H. Christ on a Kawasaki I am. I know I shouldn't be, but I am.

I know I should trust our government, but we've been through so much that engenders mistrust. Even with Obama in power. I guess he's in power. Sometimes I wonder.

I long for the days when I didn't know anything about politics or these foreign countries. I just want to live in peace and ignorance. I bet these people in the Middle East do, too.

Why do I get the feeling that the good guys might not win, that everything might go bad? That hasn't happened before, has it? I think of the mujaheddin, in Afghanistan and how we abandoned them and they came back as Al Qaeda. At least, that is the way I understand it.

Living in today's world is just too damn complicated. Before we invaded Iraq, for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction on a misguided mission for an ill-informed president, I had hardly heard of Saddam Hussein. Then there was that photo of our president, G.W. Bush, holding hands with some Arab prince. What the hell was that all about? Who was leading whom down the garden path? I think I can guess.

Now here we are, engaged in another war in the Middle East. I read today in the NY Times  that our CIA is helping the rebels in Libya. We are up to our eyeballs there already.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/world/africa/31intel.html?hp

I don't know what to think about all this. When I was a kid growing up, they told us the Germans were our enemies--damn Krauts--and so were the Japanese--slant-eyed Japs. The movies were full of evil Germans and demonic Japanese. All propaganda, now I know.

A few years later, the Germans and the Japanese were our allies. Admirable people. How does that happen? Don't confuse me. Please. I want the world to be simple again. Of course, I know it won't be. But I hesitate to jump too soon.

How do you know whom to trust? I hope we know what the hell we're doing. Somehow, I don't feel very good about all this.


© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle


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