I made up my mind. I'm going to the black party. I owe it to myself to go once to see what it's like. If it turns out to be a wash, well, I've spent more than $100 and been disappointed before. And after the week I'm having, I really will need some Bacchanalian excess.

I'm just getting home from work at 10:30 p.m. Although I let the office out at two o'clock today, I had to attend a meeting of the Eastside Coalition for Something or Other. Then, I'm testifying tomorrow morning in front of the Landmarks Preservation Committee concerning the fate of the Gansevoort Meat Market, and I left my testimony at the office. So I had to collect that. Tomorrow night after work, I'll have therapy. Wednesday will the the GMSMA Board of Directors meeting (with a packed agenda). Thursday there are actually two meetings I need to attend: Folsome Street East planning committee and the Leather Pride Night Planning Committee. I can't attend both. I'm not sure which way I'll go. No gym. Probably no work on the book. Oh, and we're going to war this week.

Speaking of which, there was a great article in the New Yorker's Talk of the Town section. It basically described how there is a group of hard left I-hate-America groups that are rock-solid against any military intervention in Iraq no matter what the weapons inspectors or anyone else turns up. And on the other side, there's... well... there's George Bush, John Poindexter, Donald Rumsfeld, and Tony Blair. Who are rock-solid in their belief that Saddam Hussein must be deposed at all costs, no matter what the opposition says. And then there are the rest of us. Some of us are pro-intervention, some of us are anti-intervention, but I know of no one--and most polls indicate that just about everyone--is of two minds on the issue.

I think it would be a very good thing if Saddam Hussein were ushered off the world stage. Sooner rather than later. He's defied UN resolutions calling on him to disarm for the past eleven years. He has or is intent on developing weapons of mass destruction and is willing to use them. He is a murderous despot. Establishing a fledgling democracy in the Middle East would be a great thing.

But. The U.S. and the U.K. are operating unilaterally. There is no coalition of the willing. Even though I believe that given the fact that Germany, France, and Russia have all supplied Iraq with much of the technology and materiel he needed to build those weapons of mass destruction, and thus their mewlings don't carry much weight with me, the Entire World is basically not on board with what we're doing. The demonstrations on February 15th were the largest worldwide mass demonstrations in history. And what if the right-wing government in Israel counter attacks as they diidn't do in the last Gulf War? And what if this spells the end of the Blair government in Britain, replaced with a government that's chilly, if not downright hostile, to American interests? And what if the U.S. economy goes right down the toilet as a result of the expenses of the war, causing a worldwide recession? And what if Kim Il Jong in Korea busts a move because no one is looking or is prepared to do anything about it? And isn't an unprovoked first strike by the U.S. fundamentally de-stabilizing to geo-politics? And couldn't this lead to a dramatic increase in terrorism, both domestic and against Americans and American-identified targets abroad?

In other words, am I sure about myself? No. I'm not. And I think Bush's reckless policies and ham-fisted diplomacy have moved us to the point where we're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't. And on balance, I think it will be worse if we do. At this point, if we backed down, and let Saddam go his merry way, we might as well replace the Great Seal of the United States of America with a bull's eye. Radical Islamacists would hate us even more, and would perceive us as being weak and vulnerable.

Oh it's such a nightmare.

My dream ticket in 2004? Either Howard Dean and John McCain or John McCain and Howard Dean. Either way I'm fine. I wanted to like George Bush. I liked his father. From all reports I read, he is a warm, genuine man, who criticized Al Gore to aides saying, "He dyes his hair. He doesn't know who he is." And that's something I would say. He has values and convictions. But how can he be so blind as to think he could go bounding around the world stage with a blunderbuss?

Oh, criminy.

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