I was walking downtown to my little village yesterday on a cat food errand and came to a line to the ferry to an adjacent island. It runs very regularly and in this off season time there wasn't much of a wait. About 10 cars in was a young lady with two kids in car seats in the backseat of a rather ample SUV - both were throwing a fit of sorts and mom's knuckles were turning white on the steering wheel. I figured she just about had had enough of this and what lay ahead of her was a ferry line wait and then a trip from which there was absolutely no escape possible and the rest of the ride home.....I figured about thirty more minutes or so of this agony.
As I walked by her car I gave her my best "cheer up" smile and she rolled down her window. I told her I had 4 grand kids and there were times, specially at family dinners, when a good primal scream was not only in order but required. She laughed and said that had happened about half an hour ago in heavy traffic. I wished her well as she started banging her head against the steering wheel.
A couple years back we started some wars in response to a religiously motivated attack on the United States. No nation attacked us - none would ever dare do it nation to nation - but some religiously inspired lunatics felt compelled to do so and as things unfolded , it seems that there are a lot of them living all over the place who think this is a good idea. We sent troops to one place to root them out and did a pretty good job of it and then we sent troops to a place where there were virtually none f them because a George Wallace type was in the White House and he saw, like Wallace, an enemy to his concept of life...besides the despot had once tried to kill his dad after years of friendship and in Texas that just doesn't fly.. 2 years ago we elected a new president who stated that he had enough of this war business and would get us out of it or them and restore some concept of order and purpose to our foreign affairs.
More than anything many thought that the 2008 election would signal an end to what was going to be an endless war against terrorists and a family enemy. Now we are in a new war and make no mistake, this won't be over next week...the real fighting will be perhaps but, as the old musical doctor joke goes, the malady will linger on. We will be mopping up this latest mess for a few more years to come and there will be one after that and one after that.....perpetual war.
We won't do this or go into things like this in non-oil producing countries - make no mistake. Just 5 years ago we sent the olive branch to Libya not because they were any less good guys or bad guys but because their 2% daily contribution to the world's oil supply and a sweet crude 2% it is, was and is of great value. If you are some banana republic killing us with drugs, well, you are safe because we can kill our citizens with drugs but if you threaten big oil with a tight market, well fella look out!On this 45th anniversary of a politician doing the right thing we can look at a decade past and a decade to come of politicians doing all the wrong things and instead of marching for peace and equal rights, we are now off on another fools errand.
I think I'll join that woman in the SUV for a good primal scream.