What goes up, comes down. Nothing could be simpler, nothing is more true. At the risk of being thought overly pessimistic, let me say that this will be true in this country, just as it has proved true in every nation, every civilization, that has sought greatness. Sorry folks, that's just the way it is.
This has little to do with terrorism; that is but a symptom. Look at the World and you will learn, Things age, they die, and, from that, new is born. I didn't make the rules, but I see the logic. A human, or any other creature born will, over time, loose its ability to function. Civilizations are no different.
Civilizations coalesce when people get new ideas, when they find new world views and this is going to happen as long as we have life. Change is the only constant in the Cosmos. If you are not changing, you are dying. We are constantly learning about ourselves and our World and you cannot ignore what is learned. To do so, to attempt to live in a World that is dead, a World that is no longer authentic is suicide and, yet, that is what many, many attempt.
Politicians strut on the stages, spouting stale rhetoric. "We are the strongest. The rest of the World looks to us for guidance." This is nonsense, dangerous nonsense. True, we have a whole bunch of nuclear missiles and bombs but we cannot use them without destroying ourselves, Our conventional forces are depleted, our troops, while brave fighters, are burnt out, and let us for once be honest, we cannot now defeat a small army of half trained, poorly equipped lunatics hiding in the desert because we are petrified that to do so would arouse the wrath of various countries. Sorry, we have lost the will to be great. That happens with all creatures as they age and countries are no different.
As far as the rest of the World is concerned, we are a somewhat useful tool. They would love for us to waste our funds and the lives of young men in efforts to save their asses. We, seemingly are dumb enough to keep doing this. I have recently heard it suggested that we, despite being involved in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, and despite still, after almost seventy years having many troops in S. Korea and many more in Europe, that we need to do something about ISIS in Libya. What pressing business do we have in Libya? Where next? Samoa? The Canary Islands? Nepal? Maybe we should just draft every 18 year old, male and female (who, by the way, will be sent into combat) and put troops and missiles in every damn country on Earth and threaten to kill anyone who steps out of line.
Not a good idea? I agree, so let's try this. Push, and push hard, to crush the monster that is ISIS, then get out of the Mid-East, and get out of every other country. Then tell the World to handle its own affairs while we figure out just where we are going and what we want to be when we grow up. Only teenage boys, with raging testosterone want to fight everything that moves.
Our Nation is entering a new phase, hopefully a more mature one, where we stop trying to run the World. From that we will change as we age. That is natural and as it should be. There will be a time when the young, headstrong Nation we were will be gone. Make no mistake about that, and in a whole lot of ways, I will miss the hell out of that. But, what will be, will be. We have two choices. Finish what we started and then mature into something new, or , like many young people, burn out and crash in flames. The latter choice does have a certain romantic appeal but, I have seen that happen to many people and it is not nearly as exciting as it sounds.
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