Tuesday, March 22, 2011

March 20, 2011

Three wars now? Gee thanks, Mr. President. There's nothing we need more right now than a new one? I don't suppose there's any way we could decline, but.... No, of course, Mr. President, I know that's not how it works. You guys decide. The rest of us just pay the bills and sacrifice the sons and daughters. I know…I know.

Let's see now. We've attacked Gaddafi because he's a bad guy. Well, sure, he's a bad guy, but is he our bad guy? The Libyans have put up with him for forty-some years now. They have to live with him; we don't. And, let's see, we invaded Iraq to knock off Saddam Hussein, another bad guy, but not, again, one of ours. And Afghanistan? Oh, yes, we wanted to find Bin Laden and punish the Taliban, because maybe they were behind 9/11. But they turned out to be mobile. Heat up Afghanistan and they move elsewhere, over to Pakistan, say. Or...well I'm sure you know the list as well as I do.

And have you any idea, sir, how we get out of these places? If we leave Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya, why won't some other bad guy take it over? Do we then go back in and knock him off? Come on, sir. Give us a break.

It always sounds so simple: get rid of the Kaiser! Sure, and then welcome Adolf Hitler; sure, then knock off Hitler and get used to the Cold War; resolve it, and let's chase those terrorists. Some poet, I think it was Auden, wrote, "Evil is everyday and always human/ And shares our bed and sups with us at table."

Well, if it is human and everyday, maybe we should try getting used to it, living with it, instead of trying to exterminate it year after year.

Oh wow! Three wars! Any hope for a fourth? Maybe a fifth? Is anybody counting?

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