I don't usually get political in this blog, but there's something worth discussing. Check out the “interesting” piece up at DailyKos about how the U.S. military is planning to invade Iran:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/1/183018/1527

I used scare-quotes around the word interesting because I'm not convinced that's a strong enough word. I'm no fool and know that with my country's jingoistic tendencies, another war wasn't unlikely. And I know that Iran is actually a pretty likely next target. I've read and heard that news before, but this one is particularly scary for several reasons.

First, it sounds like definite military plans are being but into motion. Without (as far as I can tell) any sort of Congressional oversight. Which feels frighteningly deja vu-ish. It makes me wonder why the heck we've been debating funding of Iraq if the administration's willing to do the same thing in Iran.

It also makes me wonder just what the hell my cousin died for in Iraq. Yesterday was actually the one-year anniversary of when he died, and so I've been thinking a bit about the war and how I do/should feel about it. For the sake of argument I'm willing to believe that some wars might be justifiable, but in Iraq the reasons we the American public were given seem to have been proven no longer applicable. There are no WMDs in Iraq, Saddam has been captured and executed, etc. The one good consequence I could imagine at this point was that my country might actually learn something about humility in international politics — but if the Iran news is genuine, it seems we haven't learned our lesson at all.

The second thing that bothered me — and I mean really bothered me — was the fact that a soldier admitted that other soldiers don't have a sense of purpose. Many people here know my political leanings are slightly left of center. I guess in theory I believe some wars would be justified, where it's the only way to stop imminent murder (similar to the “self-defence” justification of murder). But to be honest I'm pretty hard to satisfy when it comes to believing that a war is just.

HOWEVER. Even if I don't personally believe that the Iraq war is justified, I still see a world of difference between where the soldiers and generals think it's justified and one where they don't. If the people actually fighting a war don't have a clear sense of the reason, then they won't be able to say “Enough! This is too much!” when the “justification” no longer is strong enough to outweigh the carnage. You know? And the DailyKos article suggested that soldiers who would be fighting in Iran have no clear-cut belief of why they would be fighting the war. Which means there's no clear-cut belief that can be violated. Which is a Problem with a capital P in my book.

And finally, the thing that really disturbed me was a fairly quick allusion. You may have missed it in the DK article if you were skimming.

We also realize that anyone who has any doubts is in danger of having a long military career yanked out from under them.

This sentence, spoken by a U.S. soldier, sent shivers down my spine. I personally do not make comparisons to Nazi Germany lightly because the Holocaust is an event very tied up with my family history. As much as I loathe Mr. Bush's policies, I recognize the differences between current U.S. politics and German Nazism. However, there is such a strong parallel here to what happened in the early days of Mr. Hitler's tenure. I'm thinking particularly of when German military officers had to swear allegiance to Mr. Hitler personally. No, Mr. Bush is not requiring that in quite such an obvious way, but if this soldier's experience is to be trusted, simply disagreeing with the administration is unpatriotic.

I prefer Mark Twain's approach to loyalty:

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

Personally, I'm a loyal American — and that's why I hate so much what the current administration is doing to my country. Loyalty does not mean blindness, and it does not mean that I accept what the American government is doing as what America should be about.

Now, I'm aware of DailyKos's leanings (they're fairly liberal), and I have no way of proving that the conversation with this soldier wasn't made up. I really, really hope it's not — but the fact that U.S. is moving towards another war is supported in other more mainstream media like

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2369001.ece

So yeah, biting my thumbs and hoping that things really aren't as dangerous as they seem just now.

(ETA: Corrected typo in the first line of this post. The DK link is about Iran, not Iraq. Sorry for the confusion.)