I was on the East-West bus yesterday going to rehearsal in Biddle and these three silly girls were sitting behind me talking about the situation with the war and everything. I don't think they were drunk, which is sort of sad, because that would have redeemed them slightly. Anyway, they started their discussion by noting how disgusted they were with people who (a) have no opinions about US policy and the war, and (b) people who have opinions that are not based on a carefully considered review of all the available facts and information (read: everyone except themselves, and maybe a few of their close friends). They then went on to proclaim their anti-war sentiments (in extremely condescending tones, I might add) and reproduced a laundry list of Reasons George Bush Has No Prerogative To Attack Iraq. No evidence of ties to terrorism. Nuclear proliferation a result of U.S. Cold War maneuvers in the first place. Ulterior motives to gain control of oil reserves and political levity in the Middle East. All the stuff we've heard a million times on a zillion Internet sites.

Now, I was really turned off by listening to them, and I had a good mind to turn around and tell them to Shut The Hell Up. I don't know whether I was right or wrong not to. Everyone has a right to express opinions, and I guess it's a good thing for people to debate the war and its implications. But look. It's not as if they had inside information from the Capitol, or had talked to many political leaders and top-ranking members of the Army, or been to the Middle East and witnessed the situation there for themselves. They were three silly girls, regurgitating stuff they'd read off the internet or talked about in their political science classes, and acting all high and mighty about it, as if they could do a better job of running the country than the people in charge of it now.

I hate it when people do that. I think I might have done it myself on more than one occasion in the past (albeit not in public where I would have made a real fool of myself), and I wish that someone would have given me a good swift kick in the pants when I did. Because it's just silly. It accomplishes nothing. It artificially inflates the ego. Besides, in a matter of such political complexity as terrorism, the United States and its relations with the Middle East, I'm pretty sure that only 5 people in Duke know anything more than 1% of the real truth about anything that's going on.

I don't know if I was right or wrong, but I felt very irate and bothered by the whole thing. Good, healthy men and women of the U.S. Army have already gone to fight and bleed and die. Silly girls on the bus blabbing as if they were Beings Omniscient just makes the whole experience that much more unpalatable.