By Chic Hollis – Philosophical Musings
First there was George Washington and his revolting war against the Redcoated troops of the British. Then came Abraham Lincoln and his war between those folks who lived North and South of the Mason-Dixon Line, Woodrow Wilson and his war in the trenches in Europe, and Franklin Roosevelt and his war with the first Axis of Evil.
Need I mention Harry Truman and the war between the north and south of some faraway peninsula called Korea. After that stalemate, a bunch of executive figureheads, whose names I can’t recall and whose faces I want to forget, sent young troops to fight on another distant peninsula that was referred to as the Mekong Delta. Finally two presidents called George Bush convinced a doubtful Congress to fight battles in the scorching desert in the Near East in order to protect our supply of petroleum. The killing in Iraq is on-going.
Enough, already, I say. But of course who am I? I’m not even the president of this three person household of two women and a decrepit old man in the remote town of Slovato, Kingdom of Schwarzenegger, situated north of San Francisco Bay.
Isn’t it fair to say, who cares – except the families of the brainwashed troops who rush into battle thinking that they are fighting a noble cause like the modern gang wars over territory in the slums of some overpopulated metropolis. And the main reason behind all modern conflict? To control the not-so-empty minds of the innocent and to stimulate the trade of drugs, oil, and weapons. Afghanistan is just that kind of war, while Iraq is a throwback to the tribal conflicts of Biblical times.
Finally comes the most recent territorial dispute with rockets glaring red between the Jewish have-a-lots (silently backed by American forget-me-nots) against the Hezbollah have-nots who have friends and arms suppliers in Iran. There were no winners or losers in that last war, just survivors pounding on their chests that their military team won temporary bragging rights.
As a consequence, nonparticipating countries are supposed to contribute money, etc. to the reconstruction of Lebanon, while American and Russian arms providers are to replenish the diminished supply of non-atomic weapons to those who have money to restock.
Can’t our presidents stop waging war? Are we going to attack North Korea next because they haven’t and won’t negotiate a peace treaty in 50 plus years? Or are we going to invade Iran because they want nuclear weapons that other instable nations already possess?
Are we going to launch preemptory wars in Africa to push for more representative democracy and universal healthcare financed by who knows whom? Or are we going to “Remember the Maine” and invade the Bay of Pigs once more when Castro dies to prove that mercenaries backed by our military leaders can’t be repulsed twice?
Why do the leaders of our country, who theoretically don’t embrace fascist warlords and who politically wouldn’t take the human life of a convicted serial killer, go to war all the time? So the polarized opposition can complain about our president and his Congressional lackeys, and so the ambitious businessmen and women in America can sell newspapers and export arms, food, and medicine?
No one who is remotely familiar with our socialistic form of democratic government “of the rich, by the rich and for the rich” wants to import our flawed “Democracy.” The Donkey Kong triumvirate who represent California in Congress and the Senate (Nancy, Barbara, and Diane) vote for war and then say it’s all wrong. Our political philosophy apparently is: “Don’t love your neighbor. Shoot ’em. Bomb ’em. Destroy their infrastructure!” It’s known as “The American Way.”
If a president must choose to wage war, let our next “Commander-in-Chief” avoid wars on poverty, illegal drugs, and terrorism. Those wars are never “won!” He or she should avoid a war to liberate the poor, downtrodden victims of the world. Americans can no longer afford to rush into another interminable crusade!
US presidents come and go and are remembered mostly for the wars they ineptly wage. Viva the United States of America and their president, what’s his name!
P.S. Haven’t we proven in Vietnam, Somalia, and Iraq that American citizens are really peace-loving tourists and not brutal warriors who abandon lost causes? We fight with our tax dollars and charitable contributions, don’t we? Must our presidents insist also that our soldiers give a pound of flesh?
