Hunter S. Thompson has joined the poets in opposing possible war against Iraq. Given his ethos of retribution and reckless love affair with guns, I am surprised by his anti-war stance this time around. I hope it isn't that his hatred of the Republicans causes him to oppose ANYTHING that may be seen as part of a "Republican" agenda.

The scanty AP report says only this:

Thompson, who was involved in many anti-war protests during the Vietnam War and was a critic of President Nixon during the Watergate investigation, said presidents can be driven out of office.

"You can beat City Hall," said Thompson. "I've been to a few of these things. I've become almost homesick for the smell of tear gas."

Demonstrators carried signs reading "Give peace a chance" and "Let there be peace on Earth" and listened to speakers and a high school group performing a rap song.

"We wanted to send a message to Washington that young people are against this war," organizer Steve Chaplain said.

We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed — for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won't hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.

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