Sunday, September 14, 2014

The Steady Beat Of The Drums Of War

We are beating the war drums again. I get it: ISIS is bad. But we said the same thing about Sadam. Now we want go arm and train the groups who are against ISIS. That's the same strategy we employed when we wanted Sadam to fight Iran for us. That is, until Sadam became our enemy. How long until the folks we arm to fight ISIS fall out of our favor?  

I say this to the folks who want to put boots on the ground: come take mine. Put your boots where your mouth is. It's easy to call for other folks to be separated from their families to go off to a foreign land to fight and die. If you believe so strongly that boots on the ground is the best course of action, then I call on you to strap on a pair and lead from the front. Just like the kings of old, I'm looking to you to rally the troops. I will be more willing to lay my life on the line if you were as well. 

But perhaps boots in the ground is inevitable. Air strikes may sound nice and distant. However, all it takes is one downed aircraft to change all that.