THE WAR MACHINE

A lot of Americans wearing uniform forget or don't know that our war machine was created and allowed to balloon to enormous size because of the immediate threat to the country posed by the Soviet Union from 1950 until 1989. The USSR literally collapsed overnight as any kind of existential threat to the United States but we have kept and maintained an Army, Navy and Air Force capable of defeating the USSR at its military zenith for over 20 years now. We can look back and find that this was a worthwhile accomplishment given how well our forces engaged the enemies of the US in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Grenada, Panama, Libya, Lebanon, Mali, Somalia, Libya again, Iraq, Iran, Iraq again, Iran again, Haiti, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan.....I'm sensing a trend here.

So anyway, let's take a look at our avowed and declared enemies around the world. Those who hate America. Al Quida and the nORKs. The War Machine, it must be admitted, is overkill for the likes of Al Quida. Maybe we can trim a few ships, men and aircraft from the arsenal of democracy ~ or sell them abroad. The nORKs are pretty darned insular; not like the muslims. The nORKS bleed 'leave me alone.' I think we should just leave them alone. Everybody agrees. They're not like Syria with thousands of bleeding hearts in America and the West just thirsting for the US to send in the Marines and kill Syrians so no more Syrians get away with killing Syrians. Nope. Nobody on earth cares about what happens in nORKland.

Perhaps we are overdue to consider that the war machine we built in 1941 and lovingly maintained since then is no longer appropriate for the world of the 21st century. There are no more 'isms' out there that must be toppled or countered for the sake of humanity. Nation building is a fool's game. Ali A Mazrui did a wonderful series: 'Africans: A Triple Heritage' on the results from hundreds of years of trying to impose western civilization in all of Africa. It is one of the saddest things you will ever see how all that love and labor lavished on Africa was in vain for nothing.

Miscalculation was its ruling star.

 Mutatis mutandis. Let us leave them to play with their own devices in their own way. Leave Us Time To Get Away.