I used to sleep at the foot of Old Glory,
And awake in the dawn’s early light,
But to my surprise, when I opened my eyes
I was a victim of the great compromise…
— John Prine
I never subscribed to the “My Country, Right or Wrong” mantra, though I did believe that if my country went to war, I should support it. Both my parents were in WWII. I’m a veteran, and I have family members currently in the military. So I could never see myself as a ‘war protester’.
But that was before this senile old fool, President Biden, decided to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. Aside from the doubtful political rationale for such a war, there is the simple fact that we will get our asses kicked.
As a young man I volunteered for a war I now know we shouldn’t have fought in a place we didn’t belong. The rationale for that folly was a “commitment to our allies” in SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) and to “maintain Americas’s prestige”.
We’re supposed to fight the Russians in Ukraine because of our “commitment to our allies” in NATO, and to “maintain American prestige”. Advocates of this Ukraine nonsense seem to forget how many of us heard that BS before. Biden’s obvious cognitive deficiency illustrates George Santayana’s aphorism that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I have a suggestion for President Biden, if he is so anxious to go to war.
Lead the troops yourself, Joe.
President George Washington did. When Federal troops were initially deployed during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, Washington took his responsibility as Commander-in-Chief literally and led the troops himself.
But then, George Washington had proven during the Revolution, when he faced British bullets along side his troops, that he had a pair. Something Biden clearly lacks. He didn’t have the courage to serve during Vietnam, so he needs to prove himself now when there is no physical risk to his own precious self.
Aside from a compulsion to prove his manhood, Biden is also falling back on the one of the oldest political ploys. When domestic politics are going to hell, as they are for him, get the country into a foreign war in hopes of rallying the people behind you.
As Samuel Johnson famously said, “Patriotism is the last bastion of a scoundrel!”
And once again, young Americans will die for partisan politics, fighting a war we can’t win.
What is it with Democrat Presidents getting us into wars far from home, against enemies we can’t defeat, for purely ideological reasons. Truman in Korea to “oppose communist expansion” Kennedy and Johnson in Vietnam to “fight communist aggression”, and now taking on the Russians in their own back yard to “stop Putin’s aggression”. To quote Pete Seeger, “When will they ever learn?”
Former Obama administration Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has first hand experience listening to Biden’s thoughts on foreign policy, wrote in his memoirs that Biden has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” With that track record Biden wants us to trust him to get us into a shooting war with one of the most powerful military machines in history – on their own turf.
The Russian have some experience whoopin’ ass in Ukraine. The did it 80 years ago against the Germans, who were a far tougher opponent than the gender-indeterminate “woke” joke of an Army the United States fields nowadays.
I have an Army veteran acquaintance who served in Germany during the Cold War assigned to the U.S. armored division that was the “point of the spear” to stop the Russians if they ever invaded Europe. He says they had no illusions about their chances of survival. They were expendable speed bumps to hopefully slow down the Russian tanks long enough for the U.S. to fire tactical nukes – which is the only way the Russians would be stopped.
Is Biden ready to use nukes to stop Putin? Does Joe think he’s confronting ‘Corn Pop’?
This whole Ukraine saber-rattling is just the latest expression of the “military-industrial complex” flexing its muscle that President Eisenhower warned us about.
“Cry ‘Havoc!’ And Let Slip The Dogs Of War”.
I can’t refrain from mentioning that the last President didn’t get us into any foolish wars during his entire four year administration. This current President is doing it in just over one year. What was it Biden voters said after he won the election – “the adults are back in charge now”. How many kids are those adults going to get killed in a losing war this time?
Gary Beatty lives between Florida and Pagosa Springs. He retired after 30 years as a prosecutor for the State of Florida, has a doctorate in law, is Board Certified in Criminal Trial law by the Florida Supreme Court, and is now a law professor.