The real American zero

While at dinner the other evening, I was reminded of Aldous Huxley's "Ends and Means." This happens to be a favorite book of a friend of mine, and his brief mention of it brought up its current implications. Those of you who read "Brave New World" in high school will remember Huxley as the bane of your existence. In "Ends and Means," a collection of essays about human behavior, Huxley says that most people agree to wanting "liberty, peace, justice and brotherly love." These are reasonable ends, but the problem is agreeing on justifiable means of achieving them.\nGeorge W. Bush is determined to stamp out terrorism. This is definitely a worthy cause. \nTerrorism is unjustifiable, so why is Bush hell bent on bringing justice to terrorists through terrorism? I'll tell you why: Because he's a Texas madman. That's not an insult to Texans. It's an insult to madmen. He'd rather stick World War III under his belt than be known as the man who prevented it from ever happening. No matter how you slice it, our current Iraqi offensive is \nterror-based.\nIn basic form, terrorism is defined as the act of terrorizing. Bush has inflicted terror almost daily by announcing attack plans that he is going to use to annihilate the Iraqi government. In addition to terrorizing citizens of Iraq, think about people of the whole world he has terrorized. He keeps rubbing the bloated carcass of war in our faces to scare us. "Nuclear holy warriors?" (pronounced nu-cu-ler in Bush-speak) What the hell is that? We are constantly reminded that Iraq has invaded and attacked other countries. Are we ever reminded what we're about to do is the same thing? Hardly.\nIt is imperative that the ends justify the means. I guess I just don't see much sense in the backwoods approach to achieving peace by blowing up stuff. I understand that Iraq poses a threat, but why would they ever want to threaten us? Oh yeah, I guess it has something to do with a little conflict we had called Desert Storm or maybe when we supposedly killed over a million innocent Iraqi women and children.\nUnjustifiable means are keeping us from reaching worthy ends. Does violence erase violence? No. If anything, it compounds it. Does ink erase ink? Only if you completely cover the page and write over in White-Out. The ink is still there, though. Huxley's belief is that war exists because man wishes it to. I wonder if Bush really even wants peace, or maybe this is just some sick power trip.\n Let me say this to our beloved leader: You are a coward. You are as cowardly as the people behind the nightclub explosions in Bali. You are as cowardly as a Palestinian suicide bomber. You are as cowardly as the Sept. 11 hijackers. You are a coward because you hide your political shortcomings by imposing war, which is your animalistic nature.\nAs our country is dragged kicking and screaming into war, remember that there are things you can do. Write your representatives and tell them what you think. A good Web site to visit is www.international answer.org. \n"Those who prepare for war in due course get the war they prepare for," says Huxley. That's something I hope he's wrong about.