Thinking about war.

 Over my lifetime, I have had occasion to think about war a lot and I have been engaged in the soft edges of war at dirt level as well as command level for a major part of my active life.  I do not claim anything more than that experience, but I have come to some conclusions that I want to pass on to my friends and neighbors who have only read about war in novels and newspapers.  The bottom line is that war is far worse than anything you can imagine and, because of that ignorance, we have a very strong tendency to slip into it for all manner of ridiculous, trivial reasons.  A second point that I want to bring home to my readers is that war inevitably tends to breed more intense, and far wider war.

I can go on with a long list of other unfavorable results that stem from war, but the point that I am trying to make is that, in a nuclear world, we must, not should, but must, stop the progression as early in the process as possible if we are to sustain a world that is habitable by humans.  As a secondary objective, we should seek to protect our economic and political position of dominance in the world to the degree possible for obvious, selfish reasons.  I argue that we are, today, doing neither.  

In our hearts of heart, you and I suspect that I am right, but we are unwilling to face up to the challenge that presents itself.  It is apparently beyond our ability to grasp and deal with the implications that radiate out from it.  The result is societal disintegration inside our country and the rise of hostile powers outside.  Our vaunted democracy is crumbling around our ears and foreigners are increasingly seeing us, not as bold leaders, but rather as greedy cowards.  I do not see the issue to be how much money we spend for whatever, but rather how much thought and effort we put into resolving the most important issues between people.

You and I have, all of our lives, lived in the richest country in the history of the world and we take wealth for granted.  The vast majority of people living in this world exist in an entirely different situation and most of us have only read about it.  It is not our fault that we are ignorant and it is not our fault that we get angry when it is pointed out that we are ignorant.  We can site a carload of facts and figures to prove the extent of our education and we can recount weekend trips all over the world to prove our experience.  We honestly believe that we are equipped to decide how to deal with poverty and we are willing to pay enormous amounts of money to end it.  

The problem is not here.  The problem is over there where the people are too ignorant to do the right thing.  If they want to tear themselves apart - let 'em, we have our own problems that we need to deal with.  We have to decide whether we are going to elect Biden or Trump and it is not yet clear whether either one of them will deal with the age of the fetus, the price of gasoline, the proper use of pronouns, the number of chips in the bag, or our precious feelings the way I want those world-shaking issues settled.

PS:  we don't even understand that China is already whipping our ass all over the world, without going to war with us, and far too many others are taking note.  Since Mao's takeover and the Korean stalemate, how many expensive foreign wars has China fought?  How many unbelievably expensive wars have we fought for what advantage?  During that same period of time, how much relative economic growth has happened in the two countries?  How has the international prestige of the two countries faired?  Which of the two has seen their economy improve and which deteriorate?  At a tactical level, how many Americans see the relationship between our drug problem and China?

PPS:  The single most dangerous thing about today is that you and I honestly believe that the problem might be solved by either a megalomaniac or a bigoted crook.  We refuse to understand that they are but front men for you and me.