Politicians like to complain. It’s just their nature. The military starts a little war someplace and kills a few thousand civilians, and certain politicians start complaining.
Like for example, Colorado’s U.S. Senator Michael Bennet.
He sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which when you think about it is sort of an oxymoron.
“President Trump said ‘We are not the policeman of the world.’ He ran on that.
“And now he has turned us into the world’s policeman, into its jury, into its judge, into its executioner. And just because we have the most advanced military in the world, it doesn’t mean that we should be in a perpetual war all around the world.”
Senator Bennet was complaining about the President saying one thing, and the next day saying the opposite. Which of course happens to all of us. The President is no different. Except that innocent people die when he does it.
I have, myself, been known to complain on occasion, but not about perpetual war all around the world. Only about specific wars in specific places.
Also, I don’t sit on any “Intelligence Committees”. So far, I’ve not been invited to sit on any committees, of any type. But I’m not complaining about it. What good does it do to complain? That’s my question for Senator Bennet. Does he really have a problem with the U.S. being the world’s executioner? Every world needs a policeman, and an executioner. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
I will, however, readily admit that closer to home, I would not want a policeman to also be an executioner. In fact, I would prefer that they let me off with a warning. Like the other day — when I was stopped for just barely weaving over the double yellow line, and the cop noticed I didn’t have my seat belt fastened — he could have just given me a warning. I would have preferred that.
But when you are the policeman of the world, it’s not just a matter of someone forgetting to fasten their seat belt, or barely weaving over the double yellow line. It’s, like, nuclear weapons and chemical weapons and funding of terrorist organizations.
And operating oil refineries.
Lately, the online news has been full of photographs of Iranian cities, with big clouds of smoke rising where bombs have fallen. I don’t like seeing those photos, but I can’t help looking at them.
For a change of pace, you can find online pictures of people in Iran celebrating birthday parties and having picnics in the park. But you have to really search for them. The online news is not showing those kinds of pictures lately. More like, “executioner pictures.”
Not that I’m complaining, like Senator Bennet has been doing. I’m just taking a break from the pictures of bombing, and destruction, and looking for pictures that seem happier.
You can find pictures of beautiful Iranian women drinking tea, for example, if you search hard enough.
If I were the policeman of the world, I would just give this woman a warning if she weren’t wearing her seat belt. Although I honestly don’t know if Iranian women are allowed to drive.
It’s a different place, in Iran.
And getting more different every day.
You don’t have to search very hard to find this kind of picture.
I understand Senator Bennet is now running for Governor, here in Colorado. He’s running against a fellow Democrat, attorney general Phil Weiser, and a whole bunch of Republicans.
They are all complainers, but complaining about different things. The Democrats are mostly complaining about the Republicans, and the Republicans are mostly complaining about the Democrats.
I could easily complain about all of them.
Maybe I ought to?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.