Addicted to War

The United States of America is like a person. It has its good days and its bad days. It has its good years and its bad years.

Some ventures work out good; some ventures work out bad.

Some ventures work out really bad.

This is what happened to the United States of America.

We hung out with the wrong crowd and fell into a bad habit.

The United States became addicted to war.

Just as a heroin addict takes his first hit in order to boost himself and feel a little better, the United States did the same with war.

It started off innocently with WWI in an attempt to help out some friends and gain a little prestige.

We thought it might make us feel better.  And it did.

Yet world power is addictive.

We wanted more.

The hits got bigger and more frequent. 

Gradually the United States became addicted.

Its whole purpose shifted from peace making to war making just as a heroin addict’s focus shifts from doing productive work to securing another hit.

The addiction became the purpose for living.

WWI led to World War II led to Afghanistan led to Iraq led to Libya led to Syria.  Which leads to Iran?

Corporate America, backed up by its fellow travelers in academia and the government, led the charge and does so today.

There is scarcely a city in America that does not benefit off the war effort.

It is not solely companies that make jets, jeeps and helicopters that benefit from war; all industries benefit.  For when you go to war, those munitions must be operated by military personnel.

Military personnel need to be clothed, housed, fed and entertained.  When you go to war you recreate Corpus Christi, Texas from top to bottom in another part of the world.

You need it all – from pop tarts to pup tents.

Everybody wins.

And wins.

Until of course it ends.

The problem with the war is that it does end. 

The rush fades.

Another hit becomes necessary.

While we consumed ourselves with war, we neglected the home front.

Our own house fell into a state of disrepair as  money  – all of it – got shoveled  into war.

Like the heroin addict, we didn’t have money for rent.

Infrastructure began to crumble.  The family started to suffer.  People began to act out as their needs went unmet.

We see this in the United States today. Citizens are increasingly rebellious. The civil contract has broken down. 

Confederate statues are attacked.  Antifa fights Anti-antifa.

Politicians are openly assaulted in restaurants.

Clearly something is wrong with the culture.

In spite of this, denial exists in the addict’s mind in Washington DC.

Like the thinking of the heroin addict, the solution coming from Washington is more heroin, more war.

But more heroin is not the solution.  More war is not the solution.  The solution is to stop consuming heroin, to stop fighting war, to get off the addiction.

To do this one must first recognize that one has a problem.

Our problem is not Iran. Iran has no ships off the coast of San Diego. Iran is not dropping paratroopers into Montana.

These paranoid delusions are the manifestations of a mind that has become seriously addicted and diseased.

Our problem is our self. We have become addicted to war.

Our former friends across the world can see this.  

Just as a heroin addict’s damaged and long-suffering family looks on helplessly as the addict, once proud, descends into a vortex of self-destruction, so have our soon-to-be former allies looked on helplessly as the the United States self-immolates.

In time, the addict’s family must protect itself from the ravages that the addict inflicts upon them.  They must either walk away or have the addict confined to where he can do no more damage to himself and them.

It will be no different for the United States of America.

But all is not lost, and recovery is possible.

Donald Trump’s election was a message sent by the people to Washington that things must change.

But like an addict Washington is resistant to change.

Washington still wants that hit of heroin, that boost, that war brings.

The going will be tough, but gradually, if Washington can be persuaded, we can lessen our addiction to war.

It will not come quickly.

But in a generation, twenty years, if we commit our corporations to cutting back on war efforts by five percent  per year and re-directing those efforts to rebuilding the infrastructure in the United States, in one generation, the blink of an eye, the United States can transform itself.

Miracles do happen.