Empty Walls

I've been listening to Serj Tankian's Empty Walls a lot recently after first being introduced to it by my friend Rob, and it's been making me think a lot about the War on Terror.
I used to be completely against it, especially the Iraq War. I held that the war was fought on dubious moral grounds, and that it was a completely over the top reaction to the 11/9 attacks.

Nowadays, I'm not so sure. I still think that the invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq were mistakes, but I can see the logic behind them, and also admit that, while the events taking place in each are morally wrong, the actual invasions themselves weren't.

The USA had just suffered the worst terrorist atrocity in history; almost 3,000 people died that day when the planes crashed into the World Trade Centre.
The economy was wrecked, the area around Ground Zero was made dangerous for breathing in due to dust and smoke and 3,000 innocent people died for the supposed crimes of the American nation as a whole.

I can't imagine just how much it affected those involved. The loss of a loved one is terrible, and then on top of it all many of the volunteers helping in the rescue and recovery operation afterwards were also killed.
Fires were still burning on Ground Zero 99 days after the attacks.

It must have seemed like the world was crashing down around the American people's ears.
The government couldn't stand by and do nothing, so it launched the War on Terror.

America suffered a great loss that day and the War was intended both to achieve revenge and also prevent it from happening again.
Perhaps not morally right, but certainly understandable under the circumstances.

I can't even remember now how Iraq started. Afghanistan was the first target of the War on Terror in 2001; Iraq was two years later, in 2003.
Wikipedia tells me it was from American intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction.

You see, I don't even remember that any more. All I can remember are the terrible events that have taken place in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
All those civilians tortured and kidnapped. Civil unrest. Thousands of people dead, and the terrible indiscriminate terrorist actions.

A while ago, on another blog, I complained that we had invaded Iraq under the justification of bringing peace and democracy and yet had become murderers ourselves.
This is still my opinion. But now I'm not so quick to condemn the troops.

It's not their fault. They've been flung into a conflict and they're just reacting to the actions of those who would happily see them dead. Under such circumstances it is difficult to maintain a strong sense of morality.

I'm not condoning the war. I'm just not so quick to condemn it any more.


Oh, and Empty Walls is a very good song. Very good for making you think.