Pacifist Narcissist. Say That Three Times Fast

Whilst engaging in an entirely narcissistic behavior on which I will refrain from elaborating here, I happened upon an e-mail I wrote to my friend Kasey just after 9-11 ... back when I was smart. I was surprised to read how applicable it was and how my feelings on the matter haven't changed, despite the invasion of Iraq, the search for and failure to find WMDs and the re-election of our, ahem, fearless leader. I've always been precocious. It's a curse. I haven't, however, always been a pacifist. That's new. Enough silliness. The following excerpt is dated September 18, 2001.

I'm not sure, in other words, how much of a deterrent extended military action would be. I do agree with punishment for the group responsible, but this over-arching statement "The War Against Terrorism" scares me because what are we really fighting? What are our tangible objectives? Hunt down and kill (as Bush would no doubt say) every potential terrorist? I wonder how realistic that is.

I'm torn because I would like to see people held accountable for their actions, and the US seems to have a responsibility as THE superpower to assert that position, but I wonder who will ACTUALLY pay (the people of Afghanastan? the people of the US?). I step back from my emotions, consider my world view, consider Classics, and I see that in the history of the world no nation or empire or religion is immune from attack and that counter-attack is the natural human reaction (my guess is that Thucydides would call it human nature and conclude that we can't do better because we're bound by our nature, and maybe he's right). But in a "War on Terrorism" such as this one, what are our objectives? What are the terrorists' objectives? They don't want our land, our homes, our women (kidding, thought I'd throw in a Ciceronian tricolon there). What do they want? Why are they doing this? I think that's a productive question for our politicians to ask, and only when they've constructed an answer, decide what actions we will take, based on solving the problem at the root of the matter. Otherwise, it seems like we're not living in a new reality, but perpetuating the old one (universally speaking, rather than nationally), a reality of fighting and death and hate built on hurt upon hurt.