So I was originally just going to post links here today and get all melodramatic and shit and say that “I don’t have anything nice to say.” But the majority of my links were to Middle Eastern sites which now give me a Server Not Found error. Hmmmm. Anyway, here are two that I can access: A petition for sensible decision-making and Common Dreams. The other links, the majority of which were to pz.rawa.org (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), were older articles documenting the Taliban’s history of intolerance, from their obliteration of that ancient statue of buddha to their knack for beating and jailing men who shave or trim their beards. Also, Tim linked to this warning from an Afghan vet and I feel it is terribly important and worth posting everywhere for everyone to read. Similarly, Ari heard on the news last night from a higher-up Soviet official that Afghanistan is the worst possible place in the world to wage a war, and that the Afghan troops were typically high when they went into battle (on heroin? it’s a leading export there, isn’t it?). So basically, despite the fact that an Afghan solider may be ripped to shreds, he still clutched his rifle, shooting, apparently too high to notice the pain. And on top of everything else, there’s a lot of talk this may be a trap to engage us on their soil.

When I got to work this morning, there was an unclaimed printout sitting on the student printer: “Our records indicate that you are already registered. Your Selective Service number and date you registered are shown below.”