Unhappy Anniversary

And while a good number of Americans are concerned about how to afford Prada while fueling up their Hummers, keeping their iPods current, or paying to vote for their favorite American Idol contestant, I'd like to acknowledge the unhappy 4th anniversary of our invasion on Iraq, which marked it's rollover yesterday.

Please consider the humanity of these Iraqi people, people that were perhaps at one time largely hopeful for the turnaround the U.S. might provide. Two years ago I wrote a commentary based upon Naomi Klein's article, "Baghdad Year Zero," called "Operation Iraqi Pillage." Naomi Klein delineates a blow-by-blow analysis of what went wrong in the capitalistic utopia that was supposed to be Iraq.

It's a big risk for a blogger like me to claim a particular political perspective, the backlash can be unbelievably ugly, but I simply can't sit by silently--which bodes the question, where is the activism of the young? My observation as a belated collegiate is that there is an incredible disconnect between youth culture and the state ... how might that play out in the future?

James Wolcott writes an excellent commentary that calls this "insurgent" activity what it is, and what the pundits were warned about from the start: CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ.

I encourage everyone to take the time to soul-search about the meaning of our actions in the middle east. Watch the film Syriana, or read some reasonably unbiased material about the history of the area, research our revolving door of allies and enemies. It is, in my opinion, the most American thing we can do.