About time

I'd had a few starless letters of late, thought I was entering a slump, and then...

War without end, Amen

In a way, it almost feels like the neocons and reactionaries are deliberately stirring the pot to ensure generations of war to come, because the threat of peace breaking out (admittedly, a long-term threat at this point, thanks to them) would threaten their tidy relations with defense contractors.

I remember when the Soviet Union collapsed, and for about two weeks, they talked nervously about a peace dividend, and how, in the 90s, in the wake of it, how the GOP was floundering, since their whole politics is based on enemy imagery, on a nefarious "Other" that threatens our way of life. They would periodically chirp about narco-terrorism, but it never carried the gravitas that the overhyped Communist Conspiracy(tm) menace did.

9/11 had to have been an answer to their prayers, sadly enough, giving them the perfect bogeyman (never mind that most of the terrorist came from Saudi Arabia, that's immaterial, right?) And if they claimed that the terrorists envied our success and hated our way of life (instead of, say, opposing our lopsided, lavish support of Israel and endless, cynical oil politics and support of secularish police states in the region), they could get Americans behind a crusade in the Middle East.

Well, now we've got the crusade, and maybe it's not going so well, but, eternal optimists that Americans ultimately are, a new front in the War on Terror could be just the ticket for the defense industry, the shot in the arm it needs to get people back on board. Beat those war drums, salt the newsfeeds with stories about Iranian villainy, and the war-to-be practically sells itself.

And best of all, from their perspective, is if it turns into a quagmire as well, because then they can stab Democrats in the back if we "lose" the region by withdrawing, and insist that we keep fighting in the region indefinitely, or else lose our standing in the world (what standing that remains, that is). The absence of a real progressive wing in the Democrats ensures that they'll take the gutless stance of keeping the war going.

Think of how the GOP dragooned the Democrats into becoming cold warriors by tarring them with the "Soft on Communism" brush, and the billions of dollars wasted for decades fighting the Cold War. The Democrats were busy proving themselves to be tough talkers and walkers, too, at the expense of our actual way of life in the this country. Now the reactionaries want a Hot War to run for as long, and the war industry will be laughing all the way to their offshore banks.

Everybody circle around, now, and recite Mark Twain's "The War Prayer."

-- Slackie Onassis