[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
If there has ever been a cause or mission that I’ve emphasized over 11 years of political writing (many writers specialize an issue) it’s ending the useless, senseless war in Afghanistan. The immediate elements of the war are of course horrifying: immense treasure completely wasted year upon year, terrible deaths, wounds and afflictions to our own people, and pernicious seeds of terrible violence planted so well with the mayhem we inflict upon the humans of Afghanistan.
But equally disturbing in all the splattered blood is the creeping militarism to our society and the seriously sick implications it inevitably afflicts upon us. Got an employment catastrophe with tens of millions of careers crashed or never started? Somehow rationalize spending $120 billion dollars a year on a useless war, my god, throw it away on nothing while Americans are in the streets, oh well, the military comes first no matter what.
Got a problem or complex issue? Whatever it is, blow it the fuck up, we spent trillions of dollars on “defense” over all these years, all that money must mean it has inherent value. Right? Use it. Use it reflexively if no one objects enough.
Cruelty and callousness are the esquires to militarism. Make up a fantasy (their security is our security) and then brutally inflict it upon innocent humans with horrifying violence, yet somehow have this magic polarity in the human brain that can instantly switch to a caring, compassionate American who cares about our little people.
I’d love to be proved wrong the human mind is capable of balancing blowing up children in one place and them caring for them in another. The more militarized we become the more cruel and callous we are, everywhere.
Just a reminder that societal change is usually a creeper, powerful elements are set in place or change that only very gradually over time become apparent. How in the hell did we get to the point were armored SWAT vehicles are crashing into American homes with the wrong information for a puny pot bust? Yet here we are, life can be fast and busy, tiny changes eventually leading into savage intrusions and damage to American homes because they dare to buy hydroponic equipment. Their security is our security, hmmm, how did that work out?
Of course in these past 11 years nothing has changed in American militarism, in fact its become much worse with our secret drone war and continued blithe acceptance of all the outrageous insanity. Now the menace is threatening to engulf us in another useless and futile war in Syria.
Far as I can tell from close scrutiny the President made a mistake in drawing a red line that another killer couldn’t cross, the line was crossed and ever since the Executive branch has run around in ever-faster mental circles shouting they can do something. Of course nothing can be done that will work, but like simple juveniles the President and Secretary of State huff and puff around in a classic double-down that they of course could never be wrong or make errors, to prove it we’ll blow stuff up.
That’s really all there is here, face and embarrassment and stupidly rank behavior trying to smash in a reality that can’t exist. The President isn’t a super Military God who never loses face and the President cannot impose a military blood solution for every problem, almost every American is perfectly okay with this, but our militarists in DC obviously are not.
Forcing something stupid leads to degrading behavior, there can be no other human outcome, and this was perfectly borne out this week when John Kerry, Secretary of State, tried to bully members of Congress into agreeing war with Syria by calling this a “Munich moment.”
The horrible stupidity of the comment was instantly derided everywhere, but equally outrageous to me was the rank bullying. My god Congress has become so weak and obsequious SecState thinks he can barge in and shamelessly bully members of the United States Congress like any playground punk stealing lunch money.
Leadership of the United States of America, caught in an immensely foolish internal whirlwind of stupid militarism, walked into Congress and said something brutally stupid to incite fear of cowardism. I’d like to have a little chat with you, Mr. Secretary of State.
This doesn’t look good at all, John. You’ve denied the basic reality of geopolitics right in front of you, somehow ignored all your education and experience, jettisoned any morality or decency you may have possessed and allowed yourself to become nothing more than a pathetic two-bit political thug. Munich? Look back very, very carefully, Secretary of State, there are many valuable observations from that experience, your sick bullying for violence instantly leading to political conclusions I don’t think you meant to project, but certainly did.