On Mon, 8 Oct 2001, Ronn Blankenship wrote: > > I see the baseball pre-emption of news is continuing strong. > > _Anyone_ have any comments on the fact that a shooting war* started today > in Afghanistan? Good idea? It's about time? Bad idea? Should we have > waited and tried negotiation longer? Should we have started bombing sooner?
I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, Taliban and al Qaeda certainly have it coming to them. On the other hand, yet again I'm watching nightscope footage of explosions and anti-aircraft fire while news anchors and government talking heads drone on and on and on, and I'm left with the sick feeling of a world gripped in madness. The reason the sports weren't preempted is that, like football and baseball, the US bombing somebody feels too much like business as usual. > What about our dropping food packages for civilians? Will the Taliban tell > the people that the food packages are probably poisoned, and not to eat > them, as a way of maintaining control? They'll attempt to confiscate them for their own use, I'm sure. In theory all this bombing is supposed to make it safe for coalition planes to drop humanitarian aid to refugess. I hope it works. > I for one have friends in uniform who may be over there already, or who may > be going over there in the near future. Anyone else? I think the folks I knew who were in the Gulf and in Kosovo have since retired. I can think of one guy who might still be in the reserves, though. Strange personal note: After the bombing of the federal building on Oklahoma City, I went around feeling numb for a while, and then when I saw the now-famous photograph of a fireman carrying a dead child out of the rubble, I broke down in tears. Since 9/11 I've felt like I have an iron ball of grief and anger in my chest, aching to escape in the form of tears or screams or something recognizably human, but it hasn't happened yet. I keep waiting for something to trigger it, so I can get it over with, but it doesn't happen. I have moments in which I want to cry, but it doesn't happen. When I heard the US was finally bombing, I nearly broke down...but I was in the middle of driving, so I couldn't afford to start bawling then and there, so I choked it down and the moment passed, and so it still hasn't happened. Marvin Long Austin, Texas Allah is great, but Miss February ain't half bad, either.
