Some Southern Reflections

​I saw an interview with a candidate for Governor of Iowa. He bragged about what a fine American tradition he and his State represent. His forebears were Germans who arrived in 1850. They are proud to have answered Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops to invade, devastate and conquer the South - whose people had been here two centuries earlier and founded America.


I suppose that is what he means by “Making America Great Again.” 


Over recent years I have had two different drug insurance companies. Both have provided information in 22 foreign languages. Must be a federal regulation to help immigrants. 


Iran: Yankees always think their killing people is good because they are righteous. When victims fight back they are defamed as atrociously evil. 


When will Southerners stop joining the military of the U.S. Deep State that hates us? The virtue of Patriotism is the love of one’s people, not of the government. Building better sources of employment for our young people would be a world-changing act of philanthropy if it could be done. 


What possible good can the attack on Iran do the American people? And Trump promised no more violent “regime change.” He is proved a liar, a betrayer of his base, and weak. At bottom he is a smart-aleck New York advertising man with delusions of grandeur just like his critics have said. 


Iran is not Iraq or Syria. It is the ancient powerful Persia and it is by no means clear that most of its people really want a change. Facts indicate it is a long way from nuclear weapons which have been predicted for 47 years. It is now forbidden even the potential for nuclear weapons so that Israel can remain the only nuclear power in the region. That’s the simple and true explanation of the U.S. government initiating war. It is unreasonable to think we can forbid a large power from having even peaceful nuclear facilities. No significantly strong country can accept that. 


The “regime change” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were excused by the claim that we were retaliating against attacks. This time the U.S. is attacking because of an imaginary future danger. The President has gone to war by choice like any emperor or monarch of the past. 


And nobody has even noticed the final death of our poor old tattered Constitution where the President cannot launch a war without a considered vote of Congress. For a long time we have been tending for the President to become Emperor and now we are there. Julius Ceasar has abolished the Republic. 


Preemptive attacks of this scale are always morally dubious and productive of unintended consequences. Alas, Southerners are captives of the American Empire, and thus sharers in a sinful regime and subjects of an inevitable blowback.
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