Perspectives

Is the expression “lobotomized Republican” redundant? Or merely synonymous? If you hear of an individual claiming to be a Republican, is it polite etiquette to inquire how the surgery went? Or, do you ask of an individual who recently had a lobotomy, “Was that a requirement to vote in Florida’s Republican state primary?” Do you see my problem? I’m leaning toward redundant.

I’ve been thinking about “unintended consequences” of late. I’m preparing for an April 12 speech at the Winter Park University Club. And Republicans come to mind.

So too, why is America always at war? I was going to put “seemingly” between America and war as in “Why is America, seemingly, always at war?” But there’s no seemingly about it. America is always at war. At least since the end of World War II. No country on the planet has been in as many conflicts as America since 1848. Why?

There are any number of explanations. And some of them are noble and good. Killing Nazis was a necessary act. Many Nazis needed to die for that horror to end. America’s intervention in the Balkans in 1995 was a good thing. But Europe — I mean, really! — should have shouldered that one entirely (militarily) on its own.

We’re a warlike people, all protestations to the contrary duly noted. Part of the problem is the size of the American military itself. It dwarfs the rest of the world’s war-making capability. Why?

As recently as two weeks ago, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, while speaking at West Point, said “In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined.”

Yes, remarkable as that was (calling for restraint), even the military says “uncle” at times. Yet …

You then have the civilians (Once Bush, now Obama and his militant Valkyries!) who grab America’s war machine (the U.S. military) and with the encouragement of all the suppliers — vendors, consultants, procurement officials, research labs, government bureaucrats, military contractors, congressmen, the entire military-industrial complex — they deploy our boys willy-nilly, helter-skelter into this or that conflict. Why? Because we can. Brazil isn’t bombing Libya. Japan isn’t bombing Libya, nor China or New Zealand.

The nations of the world — combined — do not have the capacity to war like Uncle Sam. We are the gold standard when it comes to waging war on the world.

Three wars in oily Muslimland! Hells-bells, the first Crusade in 1096 wasn’t that ambitious. Three of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse now ride for America! They are on constant retainer, always saddled, always ready. America whips the pale horse.

Oh, it’s a cruel world, Chris. But for Uncle Sam’s power (Meddling: Is that part of the American “exceptionalism” argument?), the world would be a far worse place than it already is.

I might buy that argument but for the mayhem and sorrow America’s aggression has repeatedly inflicted from the end of a barrel or from 40,000 feet. From Latin America to the Philippines, from Vietnam to Iraq.

We war with such ease (with no sacrifice on the home front), and now our nation finds itself broke, both monetarily and in spirit. Cut the military in half over 36 months — invest the difference in rebuilding America.

Turn guns into plowshares.