An open letter to the rest of the world:

Dear Sir/Madam/etc.:

I’m sorry. I’m sorry that the country I live in has waged a unilateral, preemptive war in Iraq, based on no proof of an immediate threat to our country. I’m sorry we have an unelected leader who is a right-wing ultra-“conservative” zealot, who for some reason or another believes that there’s an omnipotent being backing his actions. I don’t know what lead to that delusion on his part. I’m sorry we’ve completely screwed your country, whether you’re “with us” or “against us”, and whether we’re dropping bombs on your country, or merely have coerced your military to send members of your country to die along with ours, for this pointless slaughter.

I’m sorry I haven’t personally been able to do anything about it, try though I might – I send letters to my elected representatives, and though some manage to speak out for me, most of them are real disappointments, more concerned with their own political survival than doing what’s right. I’m sorry that I won’t get another substantive chance to speak out, by voting, against this sham of a President until next year. Honestly, that date can’t get here soon enough. I’m sorry that by then, the war will likely either be over, or have cost us, and everyone else, thousands, if not tens of thousands of needless deaths.

I’m sorry that there’s so many people in my country who are so blindly ignorant that they support this nonsense – believe me, I don’t understand them any better than you do. If I could fathom the staggering ignorance it takes to believe that Iraq was somehow behind the attacks on 9/11, or that a pre-emptive war based on no evidence was somehow “self defense”, or how invading a country when the inspection process was in full swing would be beneficial, perhaps I could understand the causes behind this mass idiocy, and work to correct it. But unfortunately, I have no understanding of why so many people are so completely mentally crippled that they are unable to understand the consequences of the country’s actions. I guess perhaps our educational system has failed us, or we spend too much time watching TV, or something. Whatever it is, I whole heartedly apologize.

I’m sorry that we’ve squandered our role as a partner in a multilateral world. I’m sorry that we’ve backed out of international treaties, that we’ve ignored the pleas of countries really in dire need, in order to blow up Iraq. I know it seems senseless to you, and it does to me, too. I don’t really have any good explanation for it. I hope you can believe me when I say that I don’t support this administration, that they do not speak for me, that the actions they commit aren’t in my name. I hope you can understand that these are the actions of a tyrannical madman and the people controlling him, and not what we want out of our country’s leadership. I hope you can understand that I will do everything in my power as an individual to make sure that his reign of tyranny ends as quickly as possible, and I hope that one day, we can mend the fences we have broken, restore the alliances we once had, and work together, in a multilateral way, to achieve a peaceful world for everyone.

Until then, I again offer my apologies.