Now Obama can be a war President, too

If I don’t dwell upon the horrible nature of American journalist James Foley’s murder I think you will understand. The horror needs no words. I must say that the photograph I saw of Mr. Foley before the sword was raised showed the face of a brave man, of a remarkable courage. It is the face of Obama’s war. Now he can end his term as a War President, too.

American politicians do not learn. If they did the lesson of Viet Nam, surely, was that even a poor people can send the greatest military in the world packing if they persist. And thus died so many brave humans, and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

The American people relished so the feeling of being the saviour of Europe in WWI, the saviour of Democracies in WWII, that they haven’t noticed that, trillions of dollars in military spending later, we haven’t saved so much else.

But we have become a military-minded nation. We will spend billions believing that Mr. Foley can be avenged. Our presidential hopefuls will have to outdo each other in bluster. Many brave volunteers will die.

Many other innocent people will die in the Middle East. Israeli government deprecations  will be funded by the American taxpayer. And, it follows as night follows day, there will not be enough money for US infrastructure, health care, housing, public schools, parks, and town squares, you know - all those nice things that some countries have because they tax the rich.

And billions of dollars later, no, trillions of dollars later, someone somewhere will famously terrorize the US again and we will begin again. Collateral damage be damned – until we finally see that we all, Americans and allies, Palestinians and poor, are potential collateral damage and not just to the enemy, but to our governments.