“There’s only one truth about war: people die.”
-Richard Brinsley Sheridan
“Because it's not a game, Kate. This is a scale model of war. Every war ever fought right there in front of you. Because it's always the same. When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die. You don't know whose children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken! How many lives shattered! How much blood will spill until everybody does what they're always going to have to do from the very beginning -- sit down and talk!”-Peter Harness & Steven Moffat
Today is the day the United States attacked Iran and set off
a series of retaliatory strikes around the region. It’s still too early have
any kind of reliable figure for casualties, but there are reports of both
military and civilian targets being hit on both sides. The final numbers will
be in the hundreds, at least. And it’s not likely to end with today.
I don’t have a whole lot to say on the subject other than I
can’t imagine how we even got here. Again. Just like Iraq in 2003, there was no
clear and present danger, no need for immediate, aggressive action. There was no
need for anyone to die. No, it seems clear to anyone observing that the true
purpose of this is to redirect attention from an ongoing scandal at home that
the administration wants to go away. And so we’re at war. Criticism of our
leaders will, of course, be discouraged “in this time of emergency”. Domestic
inquiries will be put on the back burner. Attention will be redirected with the
expectation that everyone rally around a common cause.
And I’m left wondering how we keep falling for the same
trick over and over again.