Thursday, August 28, 2014

Listen . . . Can You Hear Them?

Across the land and over the air: the drums of war beating their steady beat. The debate is not whether we're going to get involved in another mid-East conflict, but how and when. Remember when communists were the worst thing on the planet? That was before Iranians, Iraqis, Al-quaeda, which were all more terrible. Now we have an enemy IS, ISIS, or ISIL, take your pick of names. Whatever we call it, it's more evil and horrible than even the next-to-latest boogeyman our leaders conjured us to keep us all terrified. And you remember how evil al-Quaeda was, don't you? So evil that now by comparison to the present boogeyman, it's a gentle Muslim reform movement.

This latest enemy is, of course, a direct threat to our "national security." Who, by the way, defines that term? We all just accept it as something very important, vital indeed to all we hold dear, to the continuation of western values, to the safety of our children and grandchildren, to the continued existence of the land of the free and the home of the brave. Listen . . . the same drums we've heard before. The same bullshit justifications for war, war, war. When are we ever going to learn?

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