We are all asking ourselves, "How did we get here?" How did our nation find itself at the brink of another war of choice, this time against Iran, a much more dangerous enemy, with much more risk of disaster.
The conventional answer has been bad leadership. But I think that there is a simpler and more coherent explanation: our weapons want to be used. The latest generation of US weaponry is seductively convenient - fast, accurate, and spectacularly destructive. For a violent nation, the impulse to use them is irresistible. The following discussion details the case for the seductiveness of precision weapons.
Convenience has been the driver for wave after wave of American consmer products. Click, snap, wham! You get what you want in seconds. Anyone can do it! Just point and click! In the world of precision-guided weapons, anyone can destroy anything - just point and click. On any given day, tens of millions of America's male children are training themselves in quick and merciless killing with high-tech weapons. This is called playing "computer games."
The long reach of our convenience weapons gives us a sense of impunity and invulnerability. Safe behind the walls of our heavily-guarded "Homeland," we can order up precision strikes against any place in the world in a few minutes, then enjoy the damage assessment video on the evening news broadcast.
When Bush orders the strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, he will be satisfying the cravings of millions of aggression-starved Americans who have grown tired of the grinding guerrilla war in Iraq. Precision bombing is what America does better than anyone. Let's get some!
The reason that there are no massive demonstrations against Bush is that Americans still believe in the omnipotence of our high-tech weaponry and hunger for further demonstrations of it. This weaponry was designed and built for "defense" but it has become an evil drug that is addictive and destructive. Our trigger fingers itch intolerably, and Iraq did not give us sufficient satisfaction. Our weapons cry out for use, so our leaders must use them.