Yes, I'm an idealistic twit. I don't want to work for the Washington war machine any more. A lot of the conspiracy theorists assumed the super-fun marathon Iraq occupation we now find ourselves in was an effort to control the region's oil; my fear is that it was actually about keeping the war machine turning.
More than $200 billion has been spent on Iraq. As long as we're fighting a war of some kind, it's a huge windfall for the Lockheed Martin/Raytheon/Northrop Grummans of the world. More is spent on weapons systems and combat gear and other high-tech crap... and a lot of it is a huge waste, like the shelfware I worked on briefly for the Navy (i.e., software that sits on a shelf and doesn't even see the light of day). And these contractors are obviously huge campaign donors to members of Congress and the executive branch, no matter what the party. So this stupid, destructive machine keeps turning and turning. And people keep getting needlessly blown up by our innovation.
Inadvertantly we have backed into Reason #854 why I need out of Washington... as a software engineer who doesn't want to work on military projects, I probably just eliminated like 95% of the available local jobs by adding that qualifier. Part of the reason I like working in software is the creative aspect. It's the same reason I like blogging... I like making things that people can enjoy. When I write software, I like it when people can use it and say, "Hey, that's pretty neat/useful/interesting." And not, "Hey, is that a missile heading towards the orphanage?" (Oops, could have sworn that was a missile silo.)
Put simply: I want to use my powers for good, and not for evil. And I don't think I can do it here. Let's face it: we're going to be in Iraq forever. Forever and ever and fuckingever. The crazy people who still think we're somehow getting our revenge for 9/11 by being in Iraq won't be happy until "the enemy has been defeated," and of course that's not even a definable goal (since there appears to be an endless supply of "the enemy").
Every time someone calls for an end to the madness, you get protests from powerful people who don't know how to shut down the machine. They can't comprehend of the U.S. being able to say: "We've made a huge mistake."
"Saddam is gone. It's a good thing, but I don't agree with what was done," Clinton told students at a forum at the American University of Dubai.
"It was a big mistake. The American government made several errors ... one of which is how easy it would be to get rid of Saddam and how hard it would be to unite the country."
[...]
"The mistake that they made is that when they kicked out Saddam, they decided to dismantle the whole authority structure of Iraq. ... We never sent enough troops and didn't have enough troops to control or seal the borders," Clinton said.
As the borders were unsealed, "the terrorists came in," he said.
Clinton said it would have been better if the United States had left Iraq's "fundamental military and social and police structure intact."
Oh my God... I sort of remember what it was like to have a president who wasn't completely and functionally retarded. It's a little bit hazy. But I sort of remember. And, honestly, at this point I think we can forgive the whole "blow jobs" thing. I'm pretty sure there are a number of us who would personally give Clinton blow jobs, if it meant he could take over for a few years and get us out of this shitstorm.
Alas, such a provision is not in the Constitution. Yet. So, in the meantime, I will remain an idealistic fool with no job. And a blog. There's nothing I can do to stop the machine... all I can do is not be a part of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment