How can this be? I ask myself. It�s been a bad day. I ate way too much. I'm feeling just crappy, and all I want is to just flop. So I turn on the TV while my little host sister Alexia, a seven year old ball of curiosity, is playing with her Barbies in the room next door. It�s the news that flashes brightly across the cold glass, and suddenly I feel more sickened. My stomach feels full to bursting, but it�s not what�s bothering me anymore. The first thing that flashes across this French newscast has nothing to do with France or any French speaking country at all. I don't even bother to marvel at the fact that I have no trouble understand the bullet fire style French that�s exiting the newscaster�s mouth. The only thing that crosses my mind is Iraq, and how horrible it all is.

Today over thirty people were killed in a terrorist attack in Baghdad. Thirty people. Thirty souls just walking down the street. Suddenly I am struck with the thought that if this were to happen in downtown New York the up cry would be outrageous. There would be a price to pay, damn it, and the bullets would fly. But here, nothing happens but sad, war-hardened newscasters rolling out the death toll like a lottery ticket number, and then they move on. Who did it? Why?

But these people are dead, and their children will have to live with it. And their wives and husbands and parents. And so does the poor and now scarred child that was peaking out of the window the moment it happened. Or the sweatshop-weary teenage girl slowly picking her way home down that broken glass strewn street. And they live with it. They go on. I've seen people who worry about missing their favorite soap opera. I even consider myself a hardened warrior for what I've been through this year. But these people. No. Life's not like that for them. They don't worry. They survive. They spend every ounce of themselves every day just trying to live. They don't get to fall into their soft covers at night and worry over who's going to win American Idol. They get to see visions of bodies ripped apart and crying children that seem to walk on tiptoes through their vision even in the pitch-black darkness of night. In short, things too horrible to cross our TV screens. And yet they survive. Some point fingers. Some cry out for help. Others pose for National Geographic photographers with eyes as hard as highly colored marbles, just so we can look at them from newsstands and pretend we really know them. But we don't know them. We send them gifts of bombs and machine guns, or the pleasure of seeing an American tank taking a leisurely stroll through the village.

Why do we do nothing? I feel so sick I can't even watch. What will be the response to this, I wonder? Will we send them the aid that they need? Will we bite the bullet and realize you can't fight guns with guns and ever really win? Why do we think they are attacking us? We eat on average twice as many calories as we need each day while they are dying of hunger, and yet we can't believe it when they strike out. When they ask for help in the only way with which they can possibly get our attention. What do we do? Do we send food and teachers? No, we send guns, and lots of them, baby, because guess what? We've got a president who idolizes cowboys. How long are we going to pretend that we are living in an action adventure movie?

And I find myself wondering, is it a good thing that we invaded Iraq? I know there were reasons in the beginning. Saddam Hussein was a dangerous guy with weapons of mass destruction. But what I want to know is, where did they all go? Where are these huge weapons worthy of killing millions of innocent people? They haven't found any that I've heard of. I tell myself that it�s a good thing that Saddam Hussein isn't ruling Iraq anymore. It�s true that his regime was horrible, but what have we replaced it with? More war and terror that seems to be becoming a second Vietnam. I can see no peace in the future. How can there be? There are just too many people in Iraq with disagreeing viewpoints on how the country should be run. So we've ended up with a war that seems unending and other disastrous effects as well. Almost every Arab country in existence holds animosity towards the US. The rest of the world seems to be thinking one thing about America, that we're gun-crazy maniacs that can't be trusted. So much bad has happened because of this war, and yet my president still is standing by the fact that it�s a good thing. But how? Please, anyone, tell me how the war in Iraq, on a global scheme, is a good thing. I really would love to hear at least one good reason.

Imagine, for a moment, if all the money spent on "Operation Iraqi Freedom" had been spent somewhere else. I'm talking all of the legal fees, the cost of the missiles, the human casualties, the labor costs of the soldiers, the energy expenses of hauling all of our equipment over there, and the cost of rebuilding everything that we knocked down, in short, billions upon billions of dollars, had been spent elsewhere. I bet that every college student in America could have gone to school for free for the next ten years with that money. Or even better, high schools all across the United States could have been improved. But think even on a broader scale. Imagine if that money would have been put into use intelligently to attempt to eliminate the AIDS epidemic that is sweeping across Africa. Think of the lives that could have been saved. We're talking about counting casualties on a negative scale rather than on a positive one. We're talking about people still living with happy parents and siblings and children of their own, rather than people dying and leaving their scarred relatives behind to endless nightmares and fear that they could be next. AIDS could be close to eradicated by now with that kind of financing. Cancer could be cured. There could be no homeless people left in America. Schools could be built all over the world to give an education to those who need it. Sweatshops could have been stopped everywhere. The hole in the atmosphere could be getting smaller instead of growing. We could have a full fledged human landing on Mars with that kind of money. Think for a moment, really stop and think about what amazing feats could be accomplished with that much money and the superpower of the American government. Almost anything your dreams could touch upon. Anything.

You know what gets me most? The education. Imagine if we would have used that money to build fabulous schools and universities all over, say, Turkey, or even better, Saudi Arabia. With our money, any and every child would have been able to attend those schools, and guess what, an enormous amount of change would have happened. Those young minds, fully educated, right on the front lines of the world's hot spot, would have created an enormous effect. Suddenly, after learning about what democratic governments can do for the people, these students would be forming their own organizations to try to take over their own governments so they could rule themselves. Suddenly, the world would have been a much more enriched place, and from Saudi Arabia or Turkey the ideas would start spreading. Soon the people of Iraq would catch wind of what was going on and one day they would have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein themselves and set up their own government, without any world policing from the US at all. Imagine. Suddenly the Middle East could become an amazingly enriched place to be. It would be just like Europe in its own way. No one had to tell the citizens of our first thirteen colonies to revolt, they figured it out on their own, and they were so fired up that the world�s biggest super power at the time, England, could do nothing to stop them. The same could go for the citizens of Iraq if they were given the chance.

I feel amazed these days to hear that people are still thinking about re-electing George Bush, or if you go by what really happened in the 2000 election, electing him for the first time. I can't think of one thing that this man did that promoted peace or prosperity in any way. When I think of the accomplishments of his administration, the things that come to mind are 1. He's ripped apart Iraq and has killed thousands of people, 2. He's ripped apart the environment, and 3. He's helped to make my life one endless stream of paying off college loans. I'm not a huge news-watcher, so I can't tell you about all the things that he's done while in office, but I can tell you that from the standpoint of someone who's just trying to live their life and stay slightly up on world events, he's done a pretty shitty job, and he's pissed off a lot of important people on the way. I'm going to leave out of my argument the fact that judging by IQs alone he seems to be one of the least intelligent Presidents we've ever had. I'm sure that if he gets reelected/elected to office this year his policy will be to get Iraq out of the news headlines and head off to the next poor, "potentially dangerous" country. In my opinion, George Bush can head back to his ranch and stay there permanently. Leading the Whitehouse should be left to someone who can handle the job.