Five years ago

March 19, 2008.

I woke up groggily to see the rooftops of Malmo covered with the memories of a snow-filled night. The sunlight curling slowly around the corners of the window began to stretch until, suddenly, it drew everything in — the streets, the buildings, the horizon, the lone cloud — and swelled with delight.

Another night has passed in a Hilton room that’s erringly starting to look as familiar as my office in Amsterdam and my work area at home. Another long day ahead filled with client meetings, presentations, and trying to not do a Catbert and say ‘Can you prove you’re stupid?’.

The TV, which I always leave on at night while I sleep (a habit I can’t kick off), began to flash the face of a colossus of science fiction. He’s dead, I heard the voice in my head repeating what I saw on the news. Arthur Clarke — a futurist, inventor and author of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” — passed away today. His book, “The Exploration of Space,” was supposed to have been used by the rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun to convince President John F. Kennedy that it was possible to go to the Moon.

I felt a sense of loss as I always do whenever masters of fantasy and science fiction go on exploring beyond this world. But after 30 seconds, the main headline began to emerge and then the sleepiness truly rubbed off my eyes.

Five years ago on this day, March 19 at 9:34 p.m. — two days after demanding that Saddam Hussein surrender and leave Iraq within 48 hours — the U.S.-led coalition began bombing Baghdad.

Five years ago on this day, in Alkmaar, I was busy reviewing for the ‘NT2-examen’ (Dutch as second language exams) when I learned that a war was again unleashed. I was very determined to not only pass the exams but also get high scores and was diligently preparing for it. But when I heard about this war on Iraq, it suddenly didn’t matter at all. I just wanted to hop on my bike and go home.

Five years ago, the ‘Burning Bush’ said it would only take about five years and a hundred thousand troops to win this ‘War on Trerror’. But today, even by the most conservative tally, the war in Iraq has already cost the United States more than $400 billion. The Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, even argued that the total bill could surpass $3 trillion.

In five years’ time, my friends got babies, my nephews were born, my husband and I bought a house, I studied again and finished my interactive media studies, my dad passed away with me by his side, I got the job I wanted, even though every now and then, work makes me want to blurt out ‘Prove to me your stupid’ and stick my straw into unfriendly clients milkshakes and drink it!

In five years’ time, GMA vowed not to run for president and did anyway, ‘Hello Garci’ ringtones swept the Philippines and the world, political killings of activists and journalists became an almost weekly event, ‘bubukol’ gave bribery and greed a new cloak, and the stench of the corrupt NBN-ZTE deal made Pinoys around the world gag and rage.

What would the next five years bring? Which war will end or begin? Would I be able to know the streets of Alkmaar as intimately as the streets of Malate? Would I work less, get paid less but become wealthier with my time? Will Arroyo finally not be President?

But then again, who knows? Maybe we don’t even have to have that long.

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Since I’m into musing over ‘Shock and Awe’ five years later, I gathered some of the more popular war terminologies of today from different blogs:

GWOT – the global war on terror

WMD – Weapons of Mass Destruction (should be IWMD = Invisible WMD)

Unlawful combatants – stands for: The U.S. can do anything it wants to you in a place of their choosing. Guantánamo base probably.

Axis of power – Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as mentioned by President G.W. Bush during his State of the Union speech in 2002 as nations which were a threat to U.S. security due to harboring terrorism. Also synonymous with Rogue nations and Terrorists. Basically, all that are against the U.S. government

Homeland Security – synonymous with Homeland insecurity.

Shock and awe – A military doctrine renders an adversary unwilling to resist through overwhelming displays of power, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Collateral damage – A military euphemism for civilian deaths.

Bush Doctrine – The policy that holds responsible nations which harbor or support terrorist organizations and says that such countries are considered hostile to the United States. From President Bush’s speech: “A country that harbors terrorists will either deliver the terrorists or share in their fate. … People have to choose sides. They are either with the terrorists, or they’re with us.” See Axis of power, Rogue nations and Terrorists.

Pre-emptive war – U.S. privilege that’s needed in order to save the world and humanity. If not initiated by the U.S., then it’s probably an act of terrorism.

Peace: What war is for.