This war has taken up most of the talk these days.. both in the news and in the home..
When working in public media.. it was one of the delights of the job to take someone who was fresh in the industry, and teach them how all that had to be done, could be done and done well, within the ubiquitous timeframe. One of the first lessons which had to be learned, was to take a step back.. look at what's relevent within all the sources of information available.. get an overview..
This particular time, these past few months. will take some while to digest once the dust settles.. for definate lines are being drawn in the sand, and historical alliances tested to their limits. One could say Hussein's merely a puppet in this charade.. that any excuse would have suited the purpose of this time..
That Iraq and it's petty problems with the world have simply become the focus of a struggle far more powerfull.
That the politicking behind this Middle East crisis, is the real war, not that which will certainly be fought in that distant desert.
Perhaps indeed this can all be traced back in an unbroken line to the dissolution of the Imperial Era, and the advent of instant mass communication.. but certainly just as Gibbon has documented that of Rome.. some historian will soon be examining what data remains from the Rise and Fall of what might be called 'The Age of Pseudo-Enlightenment'..
The tone in the chats is beginning to turn somewhat.. there are those frightened of war.. there are those who believe it to me a moral imperative at this point.. and then there are those who would, so they purport, sooner die themselves than be thought resoponsible for the death of another.
Admirable.
However, as mentioned, while the tenor of chat was firmly against action in Iraq.. it seems now to be more ballanced with similar numbers pro as con..
This could simply be a case of familiarity breeding contempt.. the motk having become saturated with information and arguments and wanting only now to see an end.. any end.. to it..
It could be that resignation is setting in.. that the inevidable is recognized, and while there was a time for dissent it is now a time to stand behind the preservation of one's way of life..
Whatever the cause.. the public is wavering.. and this is perhaps the most telling of the results of this conflict to this point.. that people's emotional weathervanes have been set to spinning..
It must be indictive of the sense of confusion that we all of us feel on a daily basis.. brought into a focus..
Perhaps we should be taking notes, for purposes of future self-examination..