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Stretcher asks: “How do you imagine your life will change if the United States attacks Iraq?”
Cameron Cartiere: Two thoughts come to mind, both of which I find terribly saddening. The first is that as an American living abroad [London] I find myself often in the position of being asked to defend US foreign policy and, quite frankly, I can’t. Despite the terrible tragedy of Sept. 11, I feel that a wave of insanity has crashed over Washington and while I can write letters and sign petitions, I am quite powerless to hold back the tide. With my West coast, non-accent, I often choose the path of least resistance and become an honorary Canadian when strangers ask if I am from the States. My second thought is that if the US (and England for that matter) proceeds, I don’t know that the day to dayness of my life, or that of anyone else outside of Iraq, will change dramatically. Given the recent history with our foray into Afghanistan, the only people who will be radically effected will be the citizens of Iraq - the average person just trying to feed their family and stay alive. Here in lies the sad luxury of having a war “over there” - the conflict becomes a series of news highlights, statistics, and abstract government press briefings, filtered via CNN and when it all becomes too much to bear, we can simply turn of the television. The people of Iraq will be caught in to middle of this war of policy and there is no off switch for them.

- Meredith Tromble [Tuesday, September 24th, 2002]

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