War is good for everything, good for everyone, save those who must die – mostly innocents. A lot of innocent people died on September 11, and the United States declared this an act of war. President Bush, after a few moments of trepidation and genuine, clumsy fear, became infatuated with “war” and “evil enemies” on that very day, and the days and months that followed. You’d never see a government happier than in the days following September 11, despite the somber faces. “Holy God man,” they thought, “we have this opportunity to start a new war, and we didn’t even start it!” Ignoring the fact that they the United States did start this war by having a rather precarious and contradictory (not to mention hyperactive) foreign policy concerning the Middle East in general and the Islamic faith in particular over the past thirty-five years.

But September 11 was a good thing for America, or at least for Mr. Bush’s team. All of a sudden these boys were not the friends of big business, but of the common American man/woman/child. Enron be damned, the Bushies have to kill all the terrorists, and that’s much more important than anything that any liberal, terrorist-aiding critic can say about the discrepancies and inconsistencies of the Bush Administration. The message is clear – “you’re either with us, or you’re against us.”

The clear message of Mr. Bush in the months following the terrorist attacks, however, has been interrupted and superceded by the harrowing existence of reality. It is ugly, this reality, and it has come to the forefront via the bloody escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. All of a sudden Mr. Bush’s “with us or against us” refrain seems childish, approaching ignorance. The recent spate of suicide bombings and Israeli military vengeance offers no clear cut solution within the Bush Doctrine.

This fact has been painfully clear in the past month as the Bush team flip-flops policy orders faster than a short order cook. To begin with, after Mr. Bush took office, he made it clear that he would have no part in attempting to negotiate a peace treaty between two warring parties halfway across the globe, as it might be interpreted by right wing pundits as “nation-building”. After September 11, this neanderthal notion continued, until, all of a sudden, the world was outraged that the nation claiming to the most powerful and beneficial was ignoring a giant conflict in the region of the world that it was supposed to be policing and protecting from terrorists.

Then we saw the United States denouncing Arafat, then making motions to restrain Sharon, then denouncing Sharon, then Arafat, then Sharon, then proclaiming the Sharon offensive legit, then announcing that Sharon had to pull his forces back to its 1967 borders in re: paving the way for a Palestinian state.

The message is clear: we’ll have a clear policy if we really care, but if we’re forced into it then our policy and diplomacy will be muddied and insanely confused. It is almost as if Mr. Bush resents being brought into this mess, and is shocked that he is supposed to have a coherent day to day policy in the most disheveled (while being modernized) region in the world. Colin Powell is a great man, but sending him to the Middle East to help with negotiations six months after the fact doesn’t seem to abet the fact that people are dying every day. It’s as if America the Powerful is commenting that they realize something is wrong, and they’ll eventually get to it, eventually think about it.

There are many who insist that the U.S.’s involvement in the Middle East is not long overdue, that America could not have been there any sooner in terms of mediation and declarations. These people aren’t paying attention, and, as proof, I point to the Bush Doctrine, which states, in so many words, all fucking terrorists are dogmeat and the U.S. will “hunt them down”. Well, what of allowing Palestinian terrorists to run rampant without so much as a hint of objections to their acts? Nothing – silence. Of course, the Bushies did speak out six months after the attacks started.

Terrorism is subjective when it comes to the Bush team. If it threatens the United States, then we’ll bomb all of their innocents. However, if they’re going to blow each other up – great! But America had better watch their step as they (finally) step in to help (police diplomatically) the situation in the Middle East. They have been largely ineffective so far, but their attempts are widely noted in Arabic press (state-sponsored) (state-sponsored by our supposed allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia). Muslims are angry, once again, that America is meddling where it doesn’t belong – and, not only that, that America is meddling in their Holy Land.

But the message is not that America should not meddle or play peacemaker, it’s simply that America should have a clearer world view than “kill all them terrorists”. American diplomacy has had some great faults, fractures and failures over the past century, but it has also had some great successes. Most of these successes came when our interests were secondary, and the interests of the people involved were the primary concern. That is not the case today.

We live in the world, not in America, and if the United States decides that it wants to play global (bogey) policeman for the world, then it had better have a clearer policy than “destroy all terrorist cells”, because that just doesn’t cut it. The real world is more complicated than that, as the Bush team is currently learning, quite grudgingly. It’s easy to make a speech in front of Congress and the American people, but when you are speaking of the world and your foreign policy, it is enormously difficult to hide your arrogance, as the speech does not receive the same applause across the globe you claim to be protecting.

People listen, people notice, people react.

The suicide bombers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are akin to the suicide bombers at the World Trade Center, yet calling them cowardly and hoping that Israel acts in good faith is foolish. Calling any suicide bomber cowardly, whether at a disco in Tel Aviv or at the helm of a commercial airliner heading into the World Trade Center, not only misses the point, it completely misstates the facts. These people are willing to die for a cause.

We have to figure out what that cause is and address it, whether we’re in Israel or Manhattan, otherwise America is in for a world of hurt. Suicide bombers are not cowards just because they killed a lot of innocents. I don’t remember anyone calling the man who dropped the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima a coward.

They have a point, let’s address it, instead of being shocked when we find ourselves at the feet of an angry world. They outnumber us, and our current policies are so inconsistent that almost EVERYONE has a reason to overthrow us. Yet another Empire to fall?

History has not ended – read the clues.