I wish I could be annoyed forever...

I'm in a foul mood. I blame you, Bush (and partly you, Saddam, as you are also a large git) and certain annoying people on a certain list who shall remain nameless and the heat and my body and MSN etc etc. Apparently, this be Annoy Cam week. I must have missed the memo (What? I did say I was in a foul mood)

Of course, I myself is an annoying spoiled git, as I have food on my plate, a roof over my head and a laptop to wuv. I shouldn't bitch. Billions starve, and probably by the end of the week, civilians in Iraq will die in a war they did not cause. And soldiers, some who might not even know what they are really fighting for (that goes for both sides). I am well off. Iraq is not.

But now that war seems inevitable, I hope my worst fears will not come to pass and that Iraq will be free *and* democratic afterwards (and not end as Afghanistan) and not forgotten a year from now but for its oil. But what will the US do to Iraq? They plan to rule it military for a while, that much is clear. Do they believe the Iraq people will not see this as removing one snake from power and putting in another? I wonder...

Not that it matter to you, Bush, but I still would say this about the war - not in my name. Norway has yet to make its position clear on this matter (Australia will probably go with the Shrub. Great). The will of the Norwegian people is unquestionable. Without a UN resolution, a large majority opposes war. With a resolution backing war, we're divided almost right down the middle. Of course, our PM has the spine of a jellyfish. Sweden has firmly backed the French/German/Russian/Chinese line, Denmark backs the American/British/Spanish/Bulgarian line. Whence will the Norwegian government go? Either way, Europe truly is divided. Not that this is a new thing. Still - I fear that America's 'with us or against us' will create a divide that will last.

We will see, I guess. Blair may be the one who will lose the most on this gamble. He faces strong opposition even within his own ranks, yet to back down now would ruin him. Too late to back down. Saddam will not back down either. I don't doubt he will pull no punches nor try to spare his people. The propaganda war has already begun, of course. I had classes on war reporting a year ago and among things, was taught the model the US uses to control the media during war. It's a highly effective six-step program. I should probably find my notes and articles on it and see how well it will fit this war. Too a tee, I'm willing to bet. The 'demonisation' step has already been at work - made easier by the fact that Saddam is a cruel tyrant, of course. Not that this stopped the US from supporting Saddam during the Iraq-Iran war.

How quickly things change...

And thus, I realise, my annoyance at things today is simply a way to buffer my fear. This week may bring a war that I fear will have a rippled effect on the Middle-east and the world and make the US the bully who reigns supreme in the class as the teacher quit over her horrible pay. Never before have I feared the future this much. Never.

It's much easier just to be annoyed. I wish I could be.

But perhaps I should take the advice of my ancestors -

Foolish is he who frets at night,
And lies awake to worry'
A weary man when morning comes,
He finds all as bad as before
Håvamål (believed to be words of wisdom to Men from Odin during the Viking age)

I'm also reminded of an exchange from B5 (between the Centauri Emperor and Sheridan, s2, if you know the show)

"No regrets then?"
"A few. But just a few. You?"
"Oh, enough to fill a lifetime. So much has been lost, so much forgotten. So much pain, so much blood. And for what, I wonder. The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible inbetween. But there is still time to cease that one last fragile moment. To choose something better, to make a difference, as you say. And I intend to do just that."

I cannot change the minds of the US. I cannot even know that what I believe is correct. But I hope that hope itself will never be lost to me, lost to the world.

And at least annoyance is not apathy. So excuse me, I shall go be annoyed at certain terribly annnoying e-mails and certain people out there and try not to get an ulcer from worry while the present goes on weaving the future. If it's a wonderful tapestry or a web to choke ourselves in only time can tell.

Edited to add:

I missed this program on ABC Australia the other day. I wish I had seen it. Here's the transcript.

I quote:

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We have our best chance since the rise of the nation state in the 17th century to build a world where the great powers compete in peace instead of prepare for war.

JONATHAN HOLMES: America would abolish world conflict, George Bush proclaimed, by maintaining its own total military dominance.

and:

JIM LOBE: Another element was a doctrine of pre-emption, um, which basically said that the United States kind of reserved unto itself the right to pre-empt possible attack, or the creation of a capability for weapons of mass destruction on the part of rogue states, for example.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long.

JONATHAN HOLMES: And then there's a common negative. The President's West Point speech made no mention of the UN Security Council - for over half a century, the only legal arbiter of matters of war and peace.

*This* is what I fear, besides the death and the hatred. It does however raise questions about the issue of 'war for oil' and that this is not the US main agenda, though many anti-war people have claimed as such. Hmmm.

I know this however - I do NOT trust the US to tell me what is a threat and what is not. The US once supported parts of the Taliban. The US once supported Iraq. I will take the UN over the US as an authority anyday, even with the UN's slowness, snail-like tendencies and unefficiancy.

Ah, to be an ostrich and stick your head in the ground and hide till the world has become sane...