A piece on Peace             

Woke up a few days ago and realized that we were actually at war with Iran.  Not like the other 15 combats that American is engaged in around the world, but a semi official, although not constitutionally authorized, hot and expensive military war. 

A student in the sixties, I protested most wars, marched most marches, joined the Peace Corps, served my C.O. service, and went about life as I saw it – ignoring or avoiding the military whenever possible. Like the clear majority of Americans, I have no family, or neighbors, or even acquaintances who have done miliary service   [generally six percent nationwide]. I guess I imagined that we, or at least society in general had evolved a bit beyond 20th century warfare as international relations. 

Time to wake up to the fact that I might be in the majority in opinion polls, but it is a minority of recidivist hawks who control government actions , if the evidence is accurate. 

Please note. International relations are extraordinarily complex and nuanced.  Those incapable of studying and grasping the details and complexity look for simple answers.  They always look for the simplest philosophy or simplest solutions as a way to deal with complexity.  The current batch  have devolved strategic thinking into war slogans. 

These simpletons let us pretend that majority should rule, but take their enormous military budgets and let loose the minute they can. They drop ordinance from the air, they set up air defense systems that pour enormous resources into the sky, and they use proxies , essentially, to murder people in poorer countries. All these actions represent all of us. 

 

So now what?