War

It's been 12 years since shit became real; since the "real world" sucker-punched and broke our nation's nose. We learned we are not immune to the hateful horrors that people all over the world endure - or must fear - everyday.

The knee-jerk reaction was war. Not war about which we learned in history class. We didn't meet a great army on a battlefield. No heroic cavalry charges were executed, no beaches were stormed. Our opponents were and are apocalyptic cowards who use God as a shield and a crutch. They vacillate between hiding in the shadows, thus using bystanders as human shields, and engaging in murder-suicide. Logic and rationalization is lost on them.

This has thrown us into a state of permanent war on a low-simmer. The decadence and peace of the 1990's has become decadence and war of the 2000's. Many people have died as a result of pinprick strikes executed sometimes by remote-control war planes. Many people still die, but the news has stopped talking about them. Snooki and twerking are more interesting. Obsessive, self-indulgent, first-world non-problems dominate our collective psyche. To quote Jimmy Kimmel, "it's a good thing nothing is happening in Syria right now."

First, we became desensitized to our permanent war. Then, we forgot about it completely. "Support the tr...OH! Honey BooBoo is on! Gee, how I love her crazy antics!" We pay lip service to the veterans, who help keep the horrors of the real world away from our fantasy land of conspicuous consumption and instant gratification, but do nothing to honor them. Look up from your smart phone and say thank you, at least. The world gets more complicated while Americans become number and dumber still.

I find solace in the fact that the politicians selling us on yet another war are getting nowhere. "Just a few tomahawk missiles," they say. But, the public is not signing on. They are sick of war. I am sick of war. It's just unfortunate this time there actually are weapons of mass destruction.

The realist in me says we need to do something; the President has seen Assad's atrocities and has raised him America's credibility. The Russians see our credibility and raise us bullshit. They bluff, we know it, but we're still about to fold. And this might be a good thing.

The American in me says no more war. No more shock and awe. No more attempts to untie the Middle Eastern knot. I care about perma-war and, while I know we can't turn away from it completely, we can at least not expand it.

Full disclosure, I have been saying that Assad needs to be dealt with. I've been saying it since 2011. I said Obama's perseverating is responsible for extremists filling a vacuum that our aid to moderates did not. I think this is all still true. But, I don't think a missile show is going to change anything.

Is it too much to ask just to remember how good we all felt on September 10, 2001? How good we felt when we woke up the morning of the 11th? The sky was royal blue, not a cloud to be seen. It was a crisp morning, but was heating up to be a very agreeable day. Can we get there again? Can we feel good and confident, while maintaining vigilance? Can we try to be smart about this? Can we attempt to recognize the world is not black and white, but a huge gray area with a huge standard deviation? Do we always have to back up soft power with hard power? Are the two truly mutually exclusive? Do we always have to have war?