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August 28, 2013
Beating the War Drums. Again
We've been here before. Often. The US, as the self-appointed global conscience and policeman is getting ready to punish yet another miscreant nation in our overcrowded, overheated world while the media counts down to the first air strike, drone attack, or cruise missile launch.The most predictable long term result of such action- in addition to "collateral" civilian deaths- will be to ramp up Muslim resentment and the likelihood of retaliation by suicide bombers in other western nations, who could be either foreign born or domestic.
Not that the actions of Bashar al Assad aren't reprehensible and deserving of forceful restraint and punishment; it's just that our species has yet to find a way to do that without inflaming resentment and the need to retaliate by people who identify with the leaders being punished. Is there any reasonable person unable to recognize that we are now in the midst of a global religious war, and that random bombings by home-grown terrorists who welcome suicide is one of the acceptable weapons?
The first time we faced a similar threat was at the end of World War Two when we avoided what would have been a horrific invasion of Japan by destroying two cities with the only two nuclear weapons ever used in anger.
Unfortunately there seems to be no Muslim equivalent of Hirohito; a leader with the authority release his followers from their obligation to commit seppuku.
Holy war and suicide are only two of the many things our species is trying to deny...more later.
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at August 28, 2013 11:01 AM