The birthday of our country is two days away. That means fireworks, a day off from work (hurray!), and contemplating our greatness as a nation which is impeccably godly, freedom-loving, and just generally all-around perfect.
Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
All kidding aside, we need to stop thinking of ourselves as the only hope of mankind. We are just a country, with some good things in our past and present, and also with faults and weak spots and some things in our past and present which are not so good. We’ve killed 61,000,000 unborn children in slightly over a generation. We are bankrupt morally. We are bankrupt financially, but we just haven’t figured it out yet. So all the bragging we do is kind of silly, or even nauseating. We need to grow up about the supposed perfection of “our democracy.”
But my goal for today is much more modest than changing the way we think about ourselves. I just want us, as people, as individuals, as Christians and conservatives–but non-Christians and non-conservatives are welcome to think along with me too–to begin, to start, to make one teeny tiny step in the direction of this goal: to stop being suckers for ridiculous wars.
I intend no denigration of those who fight in wars. I know it takes courage to fight in wars. Like most people, I admire courage. But courage in the service of idiocy is foolish.
And our wars are all foolish. They cost us blood and treasure. They cost us many of our people crippled for life. They don’t help foreign people, but rather they hurt them just as they hurt us. We kill and cripple them, we trash their countries, and we pretend we are doing good for them.
We are always fighting for a lie.
For one example, think about Iraq. Well, at least we stopped those weapons of mass destruction. Except that there were no weapons of mass destruction. And even if there had been weapons of mass destruction, so what? When did God appoint us as the righteous policeman of the world? I neglected to mark down the date.
A headline in yesterday’s paper says “President Trump faces pressure over Russia bounties to kill US troops.”
The headline is written as if it is obviously true that Russia is setting bounties to kill U.S. troops, the location we find in the article being Afghanistan.
Does this not seem inherently to be a most unlikely story?
Picture it. Vladimir Putin speaking to his circle of advisers: “Guys, I’ve got a great idea. Let’s offer our soldiers bounties to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Someone will find out about it eventually, which means we have a good chance of getting into a shooting war with the U.S. What could go wrong?”
“Well, Vlad, the economy of Russia–that’s where we live–is smaller than that of California. Actually it’s smaller than that of Texas. We would have little chance in a war against the U.S.”
Vlad: “Well, maybe with conventional weapons we would be outgunned in quantity if not in quality, and I agree we would be outnumbered numerically, since Russia is a much smaller country than the United States. But don’t forget we have nuclear weapons. We can always unleash those, which would give us a heck of a chance to win a war against the U.S. I say again, what could go wrong?”
“Well, Vlad, perhaps the U.S. would respond with nuclear weapons, which could be inconvenient for us.”
Vlad: “What a gloomy Gus! Come on guys, let’s go for it.”
“Oh, all right. You’re very persuasive. As you say, what could go wrong?”
When has the U.S. government told us the truth about anything? When has Main Sleaze Media reported anything honestly, or done serious research into rumors? Never. These intellectual “leaders” just want to manipulate us proles into going along with their idiocy.
All I’m asking is, don’t be a sucker for idiotic wars.
Did the Civil War make any sense? The South had a perfect right to secede. Hate the South if you feel so inclined, but at least have the intellectual honesty to admit that they had a right to secede. Instead, 600,000 to 620,000 dead (some think it was up to 700,000 dead), the South devastated, countless thousands on both sides crippled. It has been called a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight. Pretty well stated.
Did our entrance into World War I make any sense? It cost us about 116,000 dead, and made World War II much more likely.
Did our entrance into World War II make any sense? Well, but Japan attacked us, you say. Yes, but one only has to read a modest amount of history to discover that the holy Franklin Roosevelt was working as hard as he could to get us into the war, and doing things to Japan which we should not have been doing. These leftist geniuses always know best about how to run world history, and for them that never involves just minding our own business.
Vietnam, Korea, interventions in Latin America? Does any of it make any sense? Who pays? We ordinary people and our families, not to mention foreigners. My modest request is that we just stop being suckers.
Stop thanking soldiers for their service. They are not serving the best interests of this country by always going off to fight ridiculous wars in which we should not be involved in in the first place.
The military has a legitimate purpose: to defend this country from invasion. That could be accomplished with a budget about the size of your aunt’s egg money. Bring the troops home, cut the military budget to close to zero, and see how many countries try to invade a country of 320,000,000 people with a decent sized military and defended on two sides by huge oceans. Call me a wild-eyed optimist, but I don’t see Canada attacking us any time soon. Mexico? They are already invading us, because we don’t have the will to stop illegal immigration. Us having a huge military is not going to stop that from happening.
This Fourth of July, please join me in my modest goal that we stop being suckers for idiotic wars. Or, if that is a bridge too far for you, just budget a few hours in the next month to read some history, and to sit quietly and to think about whether all these wars really made any sense. If you want to get really wild, consider reading my book Will War Survive Until 2084?, published in 2013, and available at fine book stores nowhere. It is a 378-page paperback available from the usual Internet sources. It is even cheaper from me–$22.00 postage free, and also available for a mere pittance ($2.99) as an ebook.
As I said, I admire courage. I think most of us do. I suggest that we, as Christians and conservatives (and as anything else) start exercising some intellectual/spiritual courage in refusing to baptize these wicked and idiotic wars.
Still a bridge too far? Well, I hope at least that you will enjoy your day off from work. I know I will. Happy Fourth of July!