OK, last night was interesting-to say the least. My Scotsman and I went to see Blackhawk Down and there was some concern about whether I could stomach everything. Not a problem, I just couldn’t handle Schindler’s List. However, I’m slowly starting to realize how much I either need to be a war-monger or a peace-nik, of which, neither suits me. There were parts when I was asking myself, “why didn’t we just go in and slaughter them all?”, and parts when I was asking myself “why the hell were we there in the first place?” Regardless, I’m not sure why in the world we attempt to have a civilized war. It’s what the US tries to do, we try to make the countries we fight against or in play by the same rules we play by, and then wonder what went wrong when they do something outside those rules that turns the tables in their favour. On that same note, they did get the drive and loyalty right. The guys that come into the store I work in show the exact same attitude when it comes to fighting, it’s what they have been training to do, without it, their training becomes a waste of time. I’m not quite sure if I think that’s a good or bad thing. Back to the movie–at one point, one of the Somalian militia members stated that there’s no way we could force our democracy on them because they were fighting a civil war. That is pretty much how I feel on the topic. Sometimes, we, as a government, think that our way is so great that we feel the need and desire to force our forms and beliefs upon emerging or third world countries through acts of force. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that we were going back into Somalia because of the targeting of Americans and relief workers. Although, I’m still not understanding why we feel the need to go in to a conflict where we shouldn’t be (I’m not saying it’s because we’re not needed), because we fail to take the historical issues into consideration. Most of the fighting that is still going on is based on centuries of conflict that pre-dates the creation of the US of A. We may be able to aid in the resolution of the original issues, but we are not going to cure them, nor are we going to solve them by putting fear into the people through shows of brute strength. Look where it got us with the terrorist threat we currently face. Will wiping out Al-Qaida and Bin Laden solve the problems? I don’t think so, someone else will show up to take their place because we haven’t solved the original issue yet. Wiping out the opposition does not solve problems.

On another note–has anyone else noticed that the Federal motto “E Pluribus Unum” has been removed from all the new bills? The only bill I’ve found it on, so far, is the One Dollar bill. Strange. Though, it kind of irks me that “In God We Trust” is still there. I really need that “Pledge of Allegiance” poster. “I pledge allegiance to the earth. One planet, many gots, and to the universe in which she spins.” I am getting to be such a misanthropic hippy. Is that possible?