The following is an opinion that does not reflect the viewpoints of The Independent News Organization.
Earlier, maybe only a half-hour ago, like thousands of Americans- I felt my heart beat out of control when the news broke about the dropping of the “Mother of All Bombs” on Afghanistan.
I felt, and could recall, the panic that terrorized me during the September 11 attacks. I could feel my five-year-old self shrink in my own boots, and panic of my future being determined by people halfway around the world- faceless.
As I sat around in the Student Union, with dozens upon dozens of other students anxiously reading and reacting to the news. We sat with baited breath for Sean Spicer’s much awaited response.
We waited, listening to the same bumpers- 21,000 lbs. worth of explosives, Afghanistan as the target, and the 5,000-yard destruction radius of the bomb. Students talked about the fact that the bomb is bigger than some nukes, and that they were confused on why Afghan was the target.
I never could remember a point in which twenty-somethings sat around ferociously nervous, and waiting to the Press Secretary to speak to them. I don’t think any of us expected someone to come and save us from the moment, but something of a point to comprehend what had just occurred.
Instead, we received the usual Press Secretary. He entered, dressed like a temp for his first day, took the podium giving us no inclination, not one word of leadership- only silence.
We sat, anxiously awaiting words that would never come. We waited for Spicer to come up with some statement. Instead we were treated with the same silence as FBI Director Comey, saying such phrases of confidence as, “Talk to the Defense Department.”
Importantly, we did learn that the President has a 2:00 pm appointment, and that the Easter Egg Hunt is going well.
Oh, and the fact that the US does not condone WMD’s.
I was left, (and I think most of us in the room were), in the lack of power decisions of sense of reality too common in the world today. Students screamed sighs of anger, and some brave souls even mentioning, “What’s the big deal? It’s just another way to kill them.”
Vietnam, family dinners, where Korea and Vietnam were common topics rolled to the forefront of my mind. Talks about uncertainty and surety of doom during the Bay of Pigs, or the Cuban Missile Crisis.
That didn’t help me very much.
I sat there, and thought of our President’s thoughts and statements along the campaign trail and in office. Suddenly on attacks of places we were told we were leaving.
Brought lyrics to my mind from Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, and “What are we fighting for?” Scenes from We Were Soldiers, and talks of Vietnamese children my family saw rotting.
Is this anything new? No.
Is this something very terrifying? Yes.
Let alone the fact that it is a larger bomb than most nukes, let alone the fact there is contentious faith and lack thereof in the President, let alone the fact that we dropped 20,000 lbs. of bombs on people underground.
It is something darker, deeper, in places that most people do not like to talk about. It’s the reading between the lines.
Old idioms bubbled into my thoughts. Mainly, “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil- no.”
Seemed to be Mr. Spicer’s thoughts on everything in the world today.
But I was also wondering why Afghanistan? Why not Syria? Why Syria? Why drop a bomb in the first place? Why fight at all? (Other than oil).
I’ve never been scared, seriously at least, of a war. I grew up in a rather prosperous time in American rural life. Apple pie, somewhat levels of equality, even some sex equality.
I never thought we had to ‘Make America Great Again’ I thought that my America was pretty great.
Now I’m not so sure.
All I am sure of, is that silence rules the day. Act out first, silence the reasons after. After all, America, what is one more bomb dropped?
Could it be it’s a media frenzy?
Is it a fight against terror?
Or a breed of terror?
We pay for the bombs- should we not be informed at least on the purpose of the bomb? Why have I never heard of this bomb before, y’know?
Is it right for us to question how we kill people told that are both friends and enemies?
Are we in the era of bedded embedded journalism?
Why is it that in the Age of Information, we sit completely in the dark?