Helicopters started buzzing before noon yesterday. They were criss-crossing my area of town--news birds and police buzzards alike. I live about six blocks away from Kirtland Air Force Base, one of many government installations in my city and state. And yesterday was the official "Just Say No To War!" day. The beginning of this celebration of peace (or, at least, anti-war) was near one of the many entrances to Kirtland. The helicopters were keeping tabs on the crowd, just in case those peaceniks got out of hand.

I didn't join the crowds. I'm more for genuine discussion rather than signs and slogans. Group think always turns me off. You can get the smartest group of people together to have a protest, and it always boils down to a short little statement that can be used as a call and response. This doesn't mean I don't agree with what they're saying, I just find it really ugly to hear crowds shouting anthems and yelling in the faces of those they perceive to be their enemy.

I am against going to war with Iraq. We have no better reason to bomb the shit out of that country than we did two years ago. Or five years ago, the last time we got really close to beating up on that country.

Iraq has no choice but to play little games with us. Even if they are hiding chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, they couldn't get them very close to our people. So if we attack, we are actually increasing the chances that Saddam and his forces could actually hurt U.S. citizens. Otherwise, it's just a semi-crazy dictatorship shouting angry rhetoric to the sky.

Interestingly, one of the reasons many U.S. citizens aren't agreeing with the Prez is because they have more immediate concerns. Our economy is in the shitter at the moment. Not that it's really horrible, but there are many people out of jobs, struggling to make it. They can't just buy anything they want; they have to stick to a budget. Our government, in a total 180 to the general reality of the nation, is spending like there's no tomorrow and predicting a national deficit for the next ten years or more. I thought Republicans were supposed to be fiscally responsible and for smaller government--apparently they are really only interested in building up the military and rattling sabers at anyone who looks at us wrong.

The economy isn't the only thing our government seems to be ignoring the views of the general public about. They don't seem to get that we don't want to go to war for no reason. In a poll last week, only 29 percent of the country wanted to go to war if no big bad weapons were found in Iraq--even if Iraq couldn't account for weapons the U.S. sold them back in the day (this is why the Prez keeps insisting they have weapons--we have the receipts in our tax records). That doesn't seem like a majority to me.

Now, it's very possible that all Bush is doing is replicating the Reagan approach to foreign policy. Which was to outspend the Soviets into bankruptcy, all the while smirking through ugly rhetoric about the communist scourge. But Iraq is already pretty much broke. And threatening them with force doesn't really do anything, since we know they're not going to put up much resistance. So where's the point? Other than for revenge, we're on pretty slim ground here.

And I say we because the ultimate outcome of a war will be an escalation of violence against Americans both at home and abroad. It would give a green light to all those terrorist cells on hold. They have good reason to be mad: we're just being a big, ugly bully.

All of the eve of Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. Twelve years ago there were war protests at the University of New Mexico on MLK Jr. Day. Right before we started the Gulf War. A guy stripped naked, got his picture taken, and then said that he wasn't really protesting anything, he just wanted to be loved. Others were a little more coherent about their protests, but the government didn't listen back then either. We went into Iraq, beat up on the locals for a while and then pulled out. The only thing that happened was a significant decrease in Iraq's defenses. Saddam stayed in power and more people in Iraq starved.

I don't think Bush Jr. can do a better job than Bush Sr. He's certainly not as smart, and it's not like the Afghanistan campaign has been a great success. All we've done is force a swap in warlords. We couldn't even find Osama bin Laden--wasn't that the point? Was I missing something?

So maybe there are a lot of people in the country like me. People who probably would rather spend a Saturday watching college basketball instead of yelling slogans and swinging signs. But that doesn't mean we don't care.

We don't want this war. And sometime the government should heed the citizens on this issue. Of course, we might be yelling into the deaf ear.

Matt Worley doesn't understand the whole killing people to create peace thing.