It doesn’t look good, does it, friends? Our White House Happy Warrior is hell-bent for war, no matter how many millions march in Main Street, at home or abroad..

According to the February 19 issue of The New York Times, President Bush is taking his responsibilities seriously: “The role of the leader is to decide policy based upon the security, in this case, the security of the people.”

Why doesn’t that comfort me? Sounds as though he’s going to wrap the entire nation, not in duct tape and plastic, but in cotton batting, soft and warm, with possibly cocoa and marshmallows for every man, woman and child.

Protection against Armageddon? This diabolical war will stir up global hatred and unrest, the like of which the world has never seen, yet Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge tells us to be ready but not afraid.

Be ready? For what? Bank failures Coast to Coast? Communication completely destroyed? Fires in city after city? Hospitals destroyed? Citizens fighting citizens for the basic necessities of life?

Not afraid? We’re afraid, all right. Most of all, we’re afraid of the leaders who have brought us to the precipice of hell: President Bush, Vice-president Chaney, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. And there seems to be no turning back.

By now, more than oil, more than ambition for power, it looks as though pride will force us to bomb millions of innocent people into oblivion, rather than face the humiliation of bringing our troops home, unscathed, but wiser, and send our humiliated leaders back to the drawing board on World Peace..

It takes moral courage to admit a wrong and make it right, but we don’t seem long on that commodity these days. Long on missiles, carriers, planes with smart bombs, but not wisdom or courage. Wisdom and courage can’t be issued at the army base PX, nor off a menu in the White House dining room. They are won in personal battles of the spirit, alone in the stillness of the night, as well as in the messy confusion of life in daytime traffic.

In his excellent book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Chris Hedges warns us: “In the world of war, perversion may become moral, guilt may be honor, and the gunning down of unarmed people, including children, may be defined as heroic. In this world the ‘liquidation’ of the enemy, with the enemy defined as simply the other, is part of the redemption of the nation.”

Not true redemption, of course, but the feel-good kind, where the spoils of war go to those who bury their consciences below layers of greed and the best of brandy at the end of the day.

Who, my friends, has spelled out the horrors that await our sons and daughters, wives, husbands, friends? If, as our leaders proudly boast, we are ready for war, we can be sure that Saddam Hussein is ready for us, and it is only in the last week that we are receiving muted messages of warning about this from Washington, along with the assurance that we should not be afraid..

Not to be afraid for our loved ones? According to Mike Wallace on “60 Minutes” February 16th, thousands of protective suits and gas masks, which will be issued to the troops in the desert, are defective, and they are not in sufficient supply if the need becomes great. Those who have allowed us to go to the brink of war without having in place perfect protection for those who will be placed in harm’s way, should be tried and imprisoned for treason.

In the case of contamination, from chemical or biological warfare, large supplies of water are needed immediately to wash off the victims. No one can guarantee the water will be available. Common sense tells us many will die on the desert sand without receiving a drop of water.

In years of writing, I can’t ever remember having reported a rumor. If I can’t track down a fact, I won’t use it. Most journalists follow the same philosophy. However, for now I am breaking that rule because in no way can I trace this rumor to its source, but it is too plausible to ignore: Mass graves are being dug in the desert for the contaminated bodies. To bring them home in body bags would be to contaminate others. No crosses upon crosses in a desert Flanders Field for those men and women. Only a mass grave.

Nothing to be afraid of, friends, nothing at all. Only Armageddon everywhere we look. God help us all, here and in Iraq. The question is: Will we help God?

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