Forget (For Class)

When I was working on my computer when I realized, that the world was not what I thought it was. When we think of people, we fail to consider those who are not in our immediate circles. Why is it that when we hear reports of a war, only Americans are really mentioned. Is it that we don't consider those other people to be actual people, like us? Is it that they don't matter in our world view? How is it that reports of our wars only mention how those wars are humanitarian in interest, when in reality, they cause innumerable deaths on those we are supposedly helping?

In hindsight, I believe the reasons for the Iraq war are obvious. It was not to free the peoples that were there, or to oust a government that is dictatorial in nature. It was not even to attack the terrorists that attacked us. It was to support the greed of the powerful corporations in America. Somehow, those corporations have convinced us that the people in those countries don’t really matter. We hear of thousands of deaths on the other side and don’t even flinch. We hear how we are helping those countries and don’t even ask. This is not to say that our soldiers are fighting for a horrible idea. They fight for what they believe in, and to protect their fellow man. It is, however, those who watch from high above that are truly to blame, those who give the orders at the highest level, and those who tell us those decisions are right.

It is because we are told that these things are right that we went into the war. But we believed them because we forgot to ask the why. We forgot to ask why it was Iraq, and not Afghanistan. We forgot to ask why the proof that was offered us was so shaky. We forgot to ask why we would focus only on the countries we know had oil. We, most especially, forgot the question the motives of those making the decisions, and how they might profit from the war.

For this I blame myself, as well as the rest of the public, for not asking. But just as significantly, I blame the news organizations, that should have looked deeper into the sources, into the reasons for our desire for war. If they had done the necessary research, many lives could have been saved. But they forgot to ask those vital questions in their fervor.

This time, we must be willing to ask. With this health reform, we need to ask who really wants the reform to end, who would benefit from there being to public option. It is so easy to watch the advertising on the news, and forget from where it came, so we do not have to research. We cannot, however, forget again. We must look deeper into the reasoning behind the decisions our politicians are making. It is important this time, to not forget to ask.