This is a plane that many recognize on sight.
Not just here, in the USA, but around the world.
I take that back . . . it’s my belief the majority of U. S. Citizens have little to no interest in history, recent or ancient.
Sure, they know of wars, but they don’t study why, when, how . . . even when the lessons history could teach us are but a decade old, nevermind from the last century.
That is why a bunch of rear orifices, currently “debating” on live television, are almost to a person adamantly and forcefully pledging to commit ground troops halfway around the world. No objective besides “stopping evil”, no plan other than “kicking their ass”, no exit strategy, no definition of victory. Hell, they don’t even have the first clue where and who are enemies are.
These rear orifices call for war to appease a public who has lost all capacity to formulate decisions based on reflection, based on cost analysis, based on objectives, based on rational thinking and deep understanding of what it is we face, based on understanding the consequences of our actions. A public easily swayed by blowhards; a public fearful of imagined threats; a public incensed by the killing of one lion, but uncaring of literally hundreds of thousands of lives lost as a direct consequence of our uninformed and naive decisions.
We live in a drastically different world from seventy years ago. Our now much more powerful bombs won’t solve any problems, won’t deter those who are our sworn enemies, and as such they are largely useless.
Today’s wars, like previous wars, are rooted in economics, but ideology has creeped into the foundation, and it has done so on all sides of the neverending conflict.
You can’t bomb ideology; you can’t even question it . . . you can only die for, or because, of it.
We are Modern Man and were I to be asked, I would say we are no better than those who came before us. We are, in fact, much worse, for we have not learned from the mistakes of them who came before us.
You would be surprised how often I hear “we should just turn the Middle East to slag” and “just nuke the bastards.”
Here’s a thought . . . if we care so little about the people there that we are willing to kill them all (and presumably let some mythical god sort them out), why the Foxtrot are we thinking of sending our troops there to die?
Happy August 6th.
That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.
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. . . my FP ward . . . chieken shit.
Disperser Tracks 
…and we’re right there beside you!!
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Thanks . . . plenty of room there, I can tell you.
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Cod-damn….well said……
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Thanks . . . I’m hoping at least ten people will read it.
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You’re welcome….nine to go…..
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Well said
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Thank you.
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Now that is the kind of preaching we need more of, not, as you point out, that it will help…while we cling to our ideological ways….I am astounded daily by opinions expressed with what sounds like zero thought, insight or analysis especially on social media. So now not only do we talk crap but we pronounce it to the world, who takes it up and runs with it with zero thought, insight or analysis….I am guilty too…trying though, and reading opinions like yours helps the process.
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Well, thanks . . . very kind of you to say.
. . . although, to be fair, many hold my opinions in low regard.
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Right on, Emilio! Thank you for sharing this so well! The question you ended with brought tears to my eyes. I doubt any of the rear-end-orafices can, or want to, answer that question.
HUGS!!!
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I only caught parts of the so-called debates; I thought the questions were more like short stories, and they could not have tried any more than they did to lead the candidate’s answers.
Even when I heard something that made halfway sense, the next thing out of their mouths was something related to religion . . . almost as if we were electing an American Pope instead of a president to represent us all.
. . . it’s gonna be a long 15 months . . .
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Yes…v-e-r-y l-o-n-g.
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PS…I wish they’d announce the debates as Rear-End-Orafice Debates.
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They sort-of did, only not in so many words.
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Fools rush in, and generally cause mayhem doing it. Particularly if the fools are big and powerful.
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As an observer of human nature with a good memory of the world involvement in various wars, and a veteran, I can say that war doesn’t work. It’s not good for anyone. It’s the resort men (and women) turn to when they are out of ideas. Anyone who believes it’s human nature needs to get lost. That aside, it’s a beautiful aircraft.
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I don’t know . . . I think wars do work for their intended purposes. The problem is those purposes seldom align with what’s best for humanity as a whole and definitely does not align with what is best for a great number of individuals.
The problem is that many people look at war as inevitable in relation to a specific point in time and given that myopic approach, war may, in fact, be the only solution.
The trick is looking before then, and realize how we got to that point to begin with. If we did that, we might learn of missed opportunities to avoid war, and apply what we learned to our future actions.
But, no such luck when it comes to humanity learning from their mistakes.
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Well said, particularily after the circus of last night. Sadly. Enola Gay ‘s package was in effect the bigger club that finally ended the insanity of that particular, incredibly sad but oft repeated episode of human frailty. It may be over-simplified, but John Lenon may have said is best: “Give Peace a Chance!” In your paragraph above containing “formulate decisions based on….” it seems those who can’t perceive non violent solutions, throw stones. BUT, peace and harmany amonng humans may be mankind’s most challenging struggle. M
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The sad commentary about the human condition is that singly we can reason, compromise, adapt, and put aside our differences (most of the time). In aggregate, not so much. Nationalism, religion, tribalism, prejudice, greed, competition, all contribute to things repeatedly coming to a head and erupting into violence.
If history is a teacher, we’ll never be free of war. Certainly, for the US, there is no peace in the foreseeable future.
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Of course you are right, why oh why are there not more who think it, or more to the point more in power who think it. Sadly the USA will always take a hit for the views and ideals that it airs to the world and it only strengthens the stereotypical view many of us non Americans have of you nation. Easy to say for a self righteous English imperialist!
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I wish it were as clear as that . . . I stand by my views that as far as written law, I can’t think of another nation where I would want to live. As far as they are applied in actuality you get into problems similar to other countries and universal to the human condition (corruption, uneven application of laws, etc. etc.)
Then it gets into what one’s view and concern are, one’s economic and social status, and whether one can afford to live elsewhere; depending on one’s specific concerns, other options open up, but there are always compromises (ain’t that something; there is no perfect place on Earth).
As far as foreign policy, like most countries, the US is influenced by economic interests well above any other interests (as are all other countries I know of). There, a whole lot of other things come into play, including envy, resentment, outrage, etc. etc.
The problem is that a country’s foreign policy is often only peripherally tied to the welfare of its citizens; it’s more tied to the benefit of companies within that country under the assumption that if those companies do well, so will the citizens.
That assumption is increasingly wrong because we are now dealing with international companies and world economies. The fact that GM can build components cheaply overseas and still sell its cars here means they profit without providing many jobs here. Their entire US workforce is disproportionate to the gross US sales.
By the same token, the places that make those cheap components see the benefit of capital infusion in their economy, but can also feel they are being used as slave labor (usually it’s only the leadership of those countries who benefit).
. . . but, you know all that, and why the British Empire is less than it once was, and why we are still paying the bill for the colonialist expansions of both the US and European countries.
Basically, these cycles appear throughout history . . . it sucks when one is at the tail end of them, at a time of maximum corruption and greed. It also sucks when people (or countries) get fed up and bullets start flying.
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I just watched a documentary about Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, made with survivors sharing their stories and lots, lots of facts. It was the best I have seen so far. I learned things I never heard before.
History is so manipulated. And we keep repeating it.
Your well articulated and intelligent narrative said it all. Unfortunately you’re not majority. It’s a pity.
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. . . I am working at becoming Supreme Ruler of Humanity, but it’s been a tough go so far, even despite my assurances I would be a fair, benevolent, and altruistic Supreme Ruler.
. . . I’ll keep at it, but I’m starting to doubt I’ll make it . . .
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Those who do not learn from the past …
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. . . become politicians.
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The schools no longer teach history so children to date are totally inept when it comes to the major events in America. So sad. That’s why we have all these insane wars. Nobody realizes that history does indeed repeat itself. Ignorance is – as ignorance does.
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To be fair, many adults seem to have forgotten wars that happened in their lifetimes (Korea and Vietnam come to mind). I hear way too many people who should know better beat the war drums.
It sounds so easy to many . . . send out troops over there to clean up ISIS. They don’t stop and think about the cost we’ll be still paying (both in lives ruined and money spent) years from now on our current misguided effort. Now they want us to add to it.
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I think part of the problem with Americans is that they have not really been subjected to war, put 9/11 aside and what experience does any American have of total war. I have had experience of it having been born in London England in the 1930’s and living there until we left for Australia in 1951.
I know what it’s like to be bombed, I know what it’s like to see the devastation and the aftermath; the suffering and the hunger; even the American forces that were stationed in England and Europe really had no idea of what the general population of those countries were going or went through; they were always well fed and well cared for, Why else do you supoose they were so popular in Europe after D-Day? The Yanks are coming with all the goodies chocolate & gum and stuff that hadn’t been seen for 5 long hard years.
Perhaps had the US come under attack things may have been different, and please nobody throw up Pearl Harbor! London suffered over 60 thousand civilian men women and children killed in the blitz of 41-42, thats war!
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Hmm . . . I think soldiers who died in current and past wars would take offense to the metric of “more of us died than you” as a measure of resolve, sacrifice, and suffering.
And, for them who perished at Pearl Harbor, it is small consolation indeed that more people died during the Blitz. Some would say it’s no consolation at all.
I don’t think it’s a matter of “remembering” or “knowing” what “real” war is. People who do remember are not in the majority, and even if they were, I’m not sure how one applies the lessons of WWII to more modern times. For that matter, why not the lessons of the Korean War or the Vietnam War?
Plus, that argument is exactly what is dismissed when I bring it up with respect to guns. That is, if one has experienced violence, has been physically threatened, has seen the dark side of human nature, they are more apt to understand the value of a gun as a force multiplier for defense while acknowledging that it can also be used on offense.
So, where does that leave us? People in elected offices across every continent have never experienced combat. They have never experienced what you experienced, Had they done so, they might think differently about actions that send young men to die in foreign lands.
I don’t think it’s a problem unique to the US. Not these days.
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Those that I spoke of as dying were not military but innocent victims of war, not those who’s job is to fight wars, ie the military,volunteer or conscripted into the military, but just ordinary civilian men women and children,
As for elected politicians and war, Our Prie Minister Gough hitlam served in the RAAF during WWII, and he was responsible for pulling our forces out of the Vietnam War. Prior to that another PM refused to a request to send more troops there, His name was John Gorton, he too had served in the RAAF during WWII, Both these men were honourable men, who hated war and sending their young countrymen to fight in them!
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I was referring to current politicians . . .
As for civilian casualties . . . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_of_strategic_bombing
Again, I’m not sure how the dying would appreciate the differentiation. As to whether civilian casualties impacted the mindset of the population, I will posit once again that one has to go back a number of generations to have a population that can be said to have lived on the receiving end of bombings.
Again, I will draw the parallel between guns and war (and, for that matter, any subject when viewed through the prism of time that spans multiple decades).
People’s attitudes are most often directed by events that are both recent and which personally impacted them. Not surprisingly, idiots lacking any first-hand experience often are the most vocal in wanting others to comply with their delusional view of mankind and human nature.
Why, even some people our age, which really should know better, hesitate not in spewing forth idiocies as if they were the gospel. .
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I don’t have to go back generations I have lived through and been on the receiving end of bombings, and there are I suppose many of my generation still living in England, Scotland & Wales who well remember them. I exclude the Irish as they were supposedly a neutral state; although they were happy to allow Germans to monitor and report back the shipping movements from Liverpool; hypocritical really as it was the merchant navy that was keeping them supplied with the necessities of life, still good catholics it wasn’t our men but gods will or something along those lines.
My son, Nathan, was actually asking me about certain aspects of WWII the other day when we were alone having some quality time which is a rarity for us.
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