Is it real enough yet?
Apr. 27th, 2004 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kellinatorI just dropped by CNN.com and was greeted by this headline in the red bar at the top of the screen:
"BREAKING NEWS: Heavy shelling reported in Fallujah. Details soon."
I sat there looking at the screen and for the first time in my life, I got the sinking feeling that this was how my mom must have felt watching Vietnam play out.
I remember how terrified I was when Iraq invaded Kuwait, how fearful I was of the United States going to war. And then the war actually happened, and we all know how that went, and I think part of the nation, perhaps, began to assume that all wars would be like that, and now we're learning the hard way that they're not, they're really not.
It's a bad situation that keeps getting worse. I wondered if last week was the week the war finally came home, between the publicity generated by the Pentagon's attempt to cover up photos of flag-draped coffins, both Doonesbury's B.D. and Get Fuzzy's Rob's cousin losing a leg in Iraq, and the tragic death of Pat Tillman. Well, it's finally coming home to me. All the emotions I've been feeling over the war -- anger, disgust, sadness, anxiety -- are currently being dwarfed by one big emotion:
Fear.
"BREAKING NEWS: Heavy shelling reported in Fallujah. Details soon."
I sat there looking at the screen and for the first time in my life, I got the sinking feeling that this was how my mom must have felt watching Vietnam play out.
I remember how terrified I was when Iraq invaded Kuwait, how fearful I was of the United States going to war. And then the war actually happened, and we all know how that went, and I think part of the nation, perhaps, began to assume that all wars would be like that, and now we're learning the hard way that they're not, they're really not.
It's a bad situation that keeps getting worse. I wondered if last week was the week the war finally came home, between the publicity generated by the Pentagon's attempt to cover up photos of flag-draped coffins, both Doonesbury's B.D. and Get Fuzzy's Rob's cousin losing a leg in Iraq, and the tragic death of Pat Tillman. Well, it's finally coming home to me. All the emotions I've been feeling over the war -- anger, disgust, sadness, anxiety -- are currently being dwarfed by one big emotion:
Fear.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-04-27 12:22 pm (UTC)I, for one, am disgusted with how this entire situation has been handled, but how much power do we, the American people, have to change any of this?
I'd like to think we can do SOMETHING.
(fyi, I'll be at Dragon*Con this year, and I'll be going to the LJ meetup, will you be there?)
-R
no subject
Date: 2004-04-27 12:45 pm (UTC)Most likely I will be there! It'll be nice to meet you! :)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-27 01:22 pm (UTC)It scares me to the core.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-27 12:46 pm (UTC)And personally, I fear for the people fighting overseas and I fear for the people on American soil and I fear for the civilians in Iraq and I fear for all those people and things you'd expect, but all the fear I feel for them is dwarfed even more by the fear I have for the entire world. What with all this mounting conflict, I just constantly feel like we're on a verge of a breaking point, and it's like -- good lord, what horrific thing is that going to turn out to be?
Anyway, not that you were asking me. <moves along>
no subject
Date: 2004-04-27 03:44 pm (UTC)-R
no subject
Date: 2004-04-27 03:57 pm (UTC)