We're early yet in the war on terror and already some are worrying about the next great threat to civilization: intergalactic war with space aliens.
According to the Edmonton Sun, former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer warned in a September speech that "UFOs are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head." He suggested that aliens may already be visiting Earth.
ALIEN ENCOUNTER
He thinks the American government should be open about what really happened in Roswell, N.M., in 1947, when a flying saucer allegedly went down and alien bodies were recovered. (Some believe one alien survived and now serves as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.)
What's worse is he fears that the American government is gearing up for intergalactic war.
"The Bush administration has decided to allow the military to build a forward base on the moon," he says, "which will put them in a better position to keep track of the goings and comings of the visitors from space, and to shoot at them, if they so decide."
OH, WHERE TO START?
Bush is often accused of lacking the ability to see nuances — that he sees things only in black and white — but his critics are more frequently the ones who fall into that camp. They're doing it again with ETs.
Isn't Hellyer suggesting, after all, that ETs will likely be ethical, friendly and advanced, whereas America under Bush is slow-witted and Neanderthal? And that if an intergalactic war does go down, it will likely be sparked by a trigger-happy Bush?
I'll bet if there are ETs, they aren't much different from us. Some may be smarter and more technologically advanced, and others may be dumber and less advanced, but I'll bet they're otherwise similar.
NATURAL ORDER
I say this because there appears to be order in the universe. You don't have to believe in G-d, as I do, to agree. It should be clear to any sensible fellow that there is good and evil and that it is battling away here every day.
Show me any culture that celebrates cowardice over courage. Show me one that dislikes kindness and encourages rudeness. Show me one that despises a man who would rather die than part with his principles.
We're all listening to the same tune, you see, one deep within our souls. Though some listen better than others. This is because it's not easy for humans to comprehend what is good and what is evil. In the West, we believe it is evil to lop off the head of an innocent man while praising G-d, but some folks in the East believe this is good.
I'll bet the same struggle goes on elsewhere in the universe. I'll bet there are greedy ETs and generous ones. I'll bet some are liberal and some are conservative, and some of each take bribes.
I'll bet some misuse their religions to amass money and meet women. I'll bet absolute power has corrupted others absolutely. I'll bet ETs are no better than we are at our best (think Mother Teresa) and no worse than we are at our worst (think Massachusetts).
FRIENDLY ETs
I tire of the knee-jerk impulse so many folks around the world have that America is automatically in the wrong, as though there is some black-and-white course we should have taken to make everything in the world hunky-dory.
Now some are applying this same impulse to lovable little alien creatures, who only want to drop in for a cold beer and a sandwich — creatures the Bush people will attempt to blow out of the cosmos.
There are lots of reasons to criticize Bush's policies and approach, and genuine criticism is both warranted and needed. But so much of the criticism has been shallow and knee-jerk — spaced out, if you will — and it doesn't do anybody any good.
Besides, I doubt Bush would need to use weapons to thwart an ET invasion. All he'd have to do is give the ET leader a vacation home in the Middle East or set up a lunch date with Ted Kennedy.
I'm confident they'd leave us alone after that.
