While food shopping last Saturday, the bombs were falling on Belgrade.
The complacency & seeming innocence of my fellow shoppers (myself
included), reminded me so much of the Vietnam War era, where it was
business as usual for those of us at home, where little impinged on our
pursuit of happiness.
At the cost of sounding reductive, I've come to the conclusion that I
would never again vote for a draft resistor, that someone who was in the
shit might want to deter use of force at any cost. Unlike the 60s, the 90s
President surrounds himself with advisors who represent a broader base of
ethnicity and gender. Casting aside the "Powell Doctrine," developed after
the Vietnam War, which called for military strike only when the nation's
vital interests were at stake, only with decisive force, and only where
there is a clear goal and defined strategy for getting out, secretary of
state Madeline Albright declared, "What's the point of having this superb
military if we can't use?" Indeed. I assume Albright's time spent in the
trenches was nil, but she does have to partake of those banquet dinners
with tables groaning under the weight of multiethnic delicacies at the risk
of severe indigestion.
Even PBS has joined the fun. Last Sunday, they chose to run a lengthy
program on "The Camps," a reminder that our present-day Allied Forces were
in Europe to prevent further Genocide (even if the United States did not
sign the 1948 anti-Genocide Act until 1984). Deterring Genocide is clearly
not the goal, but protecting US interests, which are now global interests,
is: the Euro Dollar is just about to make its debut in the global
marketplace. And the Caspian Sea is evidently rich in oil, which might be
why gas prices are manipulated to cost more at present, at least on the
west coast. After our flush of victory, perhaps gas prices will once again
be lowered, so that all of us can enjoy being the happy campers we once
were.
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