Well, the war of aggression has formally begun. The U.N. has not adopted a resolution authorizing this war, Congress has not passed a declaration of war, and avenues of diplomacy have not been exhausted. Nonetheless, the war has begun.

It is difficult for me to come to grips with the reality of this situation. How has America, the purported center of the free world, become so deeply infected with hatred and greed? How has the nation whose history is rooted in tolerance come to personify arrogance, intolerance, and hate? How have we, as a society, become so detached from our peers around the world?

The answers, whatever they might be, do not come easily. It is difficult to rectify the disparity between what ought to be and what is. American ought to be the world’s beacon of light, proof that the experiment in democracy and freedom has been an unquestionable success. Americans ought to use their extraordinary freedoms to guarantee social justice for all those who are disenfranchised, wherever they might be found. Liberation ought to be a genuine goal of our policies, both domestic and foreign, and not an excuse for conquest and violence. But what is and what ought to be are unquestionably at odds.

Gary LaMoshi, an American living in Bali, has a unique perspective on this radical disjuncture:

“For US citizens living overseas, President George W Bush’s unilateral ultimatum to Iraq makes us all ugly Americans. We were potential targets for terror and abuse, like our fellow citizens back home; now we are representatives of the world’s leading bully. Our flag, which stood for the hopes of humankind now stands for disdain for diplomacy in favor of military intimidation.

As they say in the cartoons, “Thanks a lot, George, thanks a lot.”

It remains an incredible feat that the United States has forfeited all of the world’s goodwill it won after the September 11, 2001, attacks, barely 18 months ago, and legitimized the view that Bush, not Saddam Hussein, not Osama bin Laden, not Kim Jong-il, is the greatest threat to world peace. It’s hard to imagine a term for a US attack on Iraq, as threatened by Bush, except for “terrorism”.”

There’s not much else to say. Reasonable people can disagree about how best to govern our nation and I recognize that my view of this war is not unquestionably correct. Nevertheless, I have yet to hear a persuasive defense of this invasion and am deeply troubled by those who insist that we unite around the flag. LaMoshi echoes my concluding thoughts exactly:

“As an expatriate, I often feel compelled to wave the American flag and defend our core values. But this decision to attack Iraq undermines those values of democracy, responsibility and working for a peaceful and just world. I hang on the thin reed that someone with some sense will stop this madness before the US betrays everything it should stand for and proves its worst critics absolutely correct.”

“…I hope that my neighbors willmake the distinction between American values and the outlaw administration currently running the country. That would take subtlety of thought and degrees of wisdom that the people in the White House lack.”

Unfortunately for all of us, it appears to be too late.