Now come the Hawks – Bolton, Pompeo, Haspel. Elevated by the “child king” to persue his “America First” policy even if it takes military force to do it.
Down Eros Up Mars!
What a stirring scene that was in the movie Ben Hur when Judah and Messala threw their javelines at the cross beam shouting Down Eros Up Mars.
Here’s the link:
http://fw.to/2x585OM
Well, we’ve seen this movie in real life before when the God of Love gives way to the God of War and the results have been disastrous!
In the immediate aftermath of World War II the United States was indeed the Colossus of the World, the most powerful Country of all time, possessing weapons that could “bomb them back to the Stone age” as Air Force General Curtis LeMay suggested as a way to bring North Vietnam to heel.
Fortunately for us and the world, our immediate post World War II leaders embraced Eros more than Mars.
But the Hawks kept pushing, not in the reactive sense as when Truman used American military force to prevent North Korea’s takover of the South but in the sense of a first use.
Herman Kahn, A Rand Corporation analyst of the Cold war with the Soviet Union, predicted we might lose millions of people if it came to a thermonuclear exchange with the Soviets, but he predicted we would win!
And the Hawks thought it a good idea.
Dwight Eisenhower didn’t
And, when he was urged by the Joint Chiefs to aid the French effort to regain their Vietnam colony with US military force even though it might be necessary to use the atomic bomb “Ike” said No.
But the Hawks were always flying.
During the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962, the majority of Kennedy’s “wise men” were in favor of bombing Soviet missile sites in Cuba. Fortunately, their choice to hurl Mar’s javeline was not the policy Kennedy chose. And the world was spared the real potential of testing the Rand prediction.
But two of the most prominent of Kennedy’s Hawkish advisors – Defense Secretary McNamara and Chairman of the Joint Chief’s Taylor – were kept in place by Lyndon Johnson who, despite his early fears of plunging into Vietnman full tilt, went along with the Hawks until he was trapped. And the Country has not fully recovered since.
Reagan, first feared as a “cowboy” who might embrace Mars turned out to be most cautious when it came to actually using military force. When 241 US Marines sent to Lebanon as part of a UN peace keeping force were killed by a truck bomber, Reagan and his principal advisors rejected the Hawk’s cry of “give ’em a touch of U S steel,” instead he wisely withdrew the balance of U S forces from a region that had become a human “snake pit.”
Bush # 41 (George Herbert Walker) summonded Mars to repel Iraqi aggression against Kuwait and forstall Iraqi invasion of Saudi Arabia and then after accomplishing those ojectives obeyed restrictions imposed by both the U N and the U S Congress on continuing military action.
The Hawks squawk about that “timidity” in following the rule of law to this very day.
But the Hawk’s time was coming when two men collided -Bush # 43 (George W) and Osama bin Laden. The summoning of Mars in the immediate hunt for bin Laden morphed into two wars that linger still.
Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld along with a coterie of fellow Hawks in and out of government began the process of “nation building” in Afganistan (still underway and forever failing)and the Invasion of Iraq, the terrible consequeces of which are still playing out in the middle east.
And now, and now comes Trump and his new band of Hawks threatening war with North Korea and Iran (for starters).
Down Eros Up Mars.
But when Judah the Jew whose people were held in bondage and Mesalla the Roman Tribune threw their javelins there was no question of which side would win – Rome ruled the world. Sort of like the United States did right after World War II.
But today, Xi’s China possesses nuclear ballistic submarines and Putin’s Russia can quickly re-target its intercontinental nuclear missiles to American cities. The potential for deadly cyber warfare against power grids and other modern national structures also looms large.
Maybe you think these and other new world powers will stand aside if we throw the Javelin.
Do we really want to find out?