A friend sent me something in an email the other day. The subject line was, "a very difficult read, but worth it". It wasn't a lie. Some novels are difficult to read because we don't understand the words or concepts within them. Words and concepts can be learned, and these are ultimately easy for those who take the time to understand them. But some things are difficult to read because we understand them, but don't want to. That is the kindest way of describing this link.

I consider myself open to studying other ideas. I had a friend in college that was Muslim. She was the opposite of everything people believe about Muslims. She was not rigid in her dogma, and she was not unforgiving. She did not carry a hatred for my white skin. She was a girl that was anxious to get an education. She had met Princess Diana and adored her unlike any Westerner alive. She was eager to learn to drive a car, and we had many adventures driving around the campus. And when several of us found out she hadn't tried a Dr. Pepper, we practically dragged her out of her room without her hair properly covered. I never saw her after that day without a can of Dr. Pepper in her room, save Ramadan when I barely saw her at all. She was also the leader of the Muslim Student Association. Yes, a girl led them and comforted them in Oklahoma immediately after the Murrah bombing, when everyone was still pointing the finger at Muslims. No apologies were issued to her group when they found McVeigh, yet she forgave whoever threw a brick through their window anyway.

Yet somehow I fell into the trap of thinking that maybe she was the exception. Maybe it was because she was from Egypt. They at least have tourism going for them. Nobody was going to visit Iraq even in 1994. Probably because it was a forsaken little nation who hated Westerners. And even when we were attacked on September 11th, I knew there was no connection between Iraq and the people that attacked us. Not that I got extremely vocal about it to anyone other than my husband, mind you.

And now, most people are against the war in Iraq, but it's not like they actually care about Iraq. I think most people would be more than happy to nuke it and be done with it. Why should we care? They bombed our troops! How dare they?! Sorry guys, I'm not willing to make that hypocritical jump. If people came over here and shoved a rifle in my face, told me that George Bush is an utter bastard so they have to try him according to their rules, and murder half my family because they voted for him- do you think I am going to take it without protest? No, I'm going to grab a gun and fight back.

This is not a protest on my part. This is not a call for the government to be overthrown. That would accomplish little, because the problem is not in the government. We are a republic. We elect people to elect people for us. Those leaders are people who come from among us. They were not born into a ruling class. If the government is a cancer, it's because we are the first mutant cells that spread throughout the body. The reason I write this is simple: if we have forgotten that soliders occasionally take a bullet in the head, we never should have sent them. If we cannot justify every, single soldier dying an awful death, we cannot justify war. I think America has forgotten this. Maybe I'm romanticizing it, but it always seemed as though the founding fathers were prepared to be wiped off the planet entirely rather than be ruled by others.

The link describes the condition in Iraq right now from a person living there. You can sense the life behind the comments, and you feel it when they talk about their cousin's death. You can't leave comments, so I can't tell the person that I'm not that way, and I shouldn't be lumped in with that group. But in my own way, I am just as guilty.

I can't wait to say goodbye to this year. For the last few days, I've already treated 2006 as if it's the dying relative that nobody wants to speak of because he keeps clinging to life. To me, 2006 is already dead, and there is an estate to settle. I feel like Pandora. The hope for 2007 lies crushed in the bottom of a box, but hope is all that is left.

Click here for the article.