La Plus ca Change

America didn’t learn a thing from its global stand-off with “the evil empire” For forty years, any despot, any dictator, any renegade militia across the globe knew that all it had to do was profess a token opposition to Communism to start the flow of American dollars and arms. We had our fingers in a thousand political pies, threw ourselves between millions of “innocents” and the Communist juggernaut, schemed and cajoled, bribed and battled ourselves into any situation in the world where a choice between communism and…anything else…might be imminent.

As it happens, a little more than a month before the Soviet Union waded into the quagmire in Afghanistan that would weaken it militarily and economically to the point of ruin in 1990, the next great enemy of the United States reared its ugly head. In the form of Iranian militants, who held America hostage for 444 days. Which is how it came about that, at the same time that we were funneling money and arms to the mujahadin in Afghanistan to help them harass the Soviets, we were backing the Saddam Hussein regime in its war against Iran. As was our custom, we ignored the moral worth or ethical standing of the regimes/militia we backed, basing our aid solely on the fact that (fill in the blank) professed to be “enemies of our enemies.”

So now, once again, we have a sworn global enemy. Which is just as well. We didn’t have the slightest idea what to do with ourselves, as a society, between 1990 and 2001 when we didn’t (officially) have one. When there was no “bad guy” for Uncle Sam to don his white ten-gallon and ride out after. Sure… “they” came here and attacked us. But…why DO they hate us?

Do we feel complete now? Is it so much easier to see the world in terms of us vs them, rather than what we are vs what we could be? Do we have a more lofty reason to stand at attention and salute the Stars and Stripes with a mist of tears in our eyes when we stand over the grave of some youngster who forfeited his future at the behest of desk-bound leaders engaged in a deadly game of global chess?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

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