How did we get here?

An Iranian blogger that I like, Naj, of Neo-Resistance, has a long post about an article by R. K. Ramazani called "An Iran-US Partnership: Thinking the Unthinkable. Professor Ramazani writes "Anti-Iran hawks will be horrified at the idea to partner with Iran against al-Qaida. Iran’s ties to Hezbollah and Hamas, they will claim, establish Iran and al-Qaida as woven from the same terrorist cloth.

But such charges gravely distort reality. There is no such a thing as good and bad terrorism; terrorism kills and maims innocent civilians, regardless of the cause. But failure to grasp the importance of conflicts between al-Qaida and Iran benefits al-Qaida and blinds us to common American and Iran-ian interests in the peace, security and stability of Iraq."

If the common goal is to defeat al-Qaida, I am for it. But I fear that Bush wants to invade Iran. For the USA, it has never really been about al-Quaida; that terrorist group was a convenient excuse to invade Iraq, and will be a convenient excuse to invade Iran.

Naj's blog is quite interesting, and she speaks eloquently about looking at many sides of issues. On her homepage, she writes: "I strongly believe that the path to peace crosses through the battle with self."

In my own battle with self, I am struggling with the moral disintegration of my country's government. I struggle with it because there is a part of me that believes nothing has changed, despite all the facts of the last six years of Bush's regime. Our Constitution has been rendered nothing more than a useless piece of paper. We live in a climate of fear: fear of an unseen "enemy" and fear of attacks that may or may not happen, depending on the needs of our President. Is that too cynical, even for me?

Why does Lindsay Lohan make front page news? Why does anyone give a rat's ass about Paris Hilton? How can we have a climate where people become famous for being famous, yet we can't afford our prescription medicines? Why do I wonder if I am doing enough, if I could do more, to try and heal what's wrong?

In sobriety, I know that all I really can control are my own actions. I can vote, I can speak out, I can live my life according to a code of ethics that matters, I can be of maximum service to those around me. I can be an example of what I want to see in the world. But is this enough?

So one more time, I wonder: how did we get here?