Unglued

As fresh in my mind now as over seventy years ago, the innocence of a small child thrown against the ignorance and thuggery of older boys from totally dysfunctional homes and, this was an all white rural school, in the 1930's The first child of very proud parents, I had been taught how to behave... everywhere. I wore clean clothes, exceptional, Mensa student. It was in the boys bathroom that I discovered the lives of young hoodlums. They took out their disdain for the bookworm... trying to “pee” on him. If I were to return to the school, though blind, I could probably still find the corner in the building where I sought refuge-escape. One can only imagine what goes on in bathrooms, public schools, mix of races, mix of sociology today.

I thought about this when pictures were made of Marines “peeing on their enemy.” The one who made the photograph should be court marshaled. In war, bad things happen. Near the Chosun reservoir in South Korea the frozen dead bodies of Americans, stacked like cord wood. My uncle, South Pacific WWII, never recovered from his best friend spattered, standing next to him. Until he died, though uninjured when his friend was struck, he had a tremor in his body, every muscle jumped for which no physiological or neurological reason could be found, all psychological. War is hell on earth, and there is no other way to describe it. The tragedy, politicians and industrialists get rich, while the sons and daughters of the poor, pay the price.

I have never known an appointee to a military academy from a poor family. Appointment to the military academies belonged to the well-heeled, those with connections, those who have contributed to a congress-person's campaign. Of course, Senator McCain went to an academy, but his father and grandfather “flag” officers.

Why should Americans become unglued when young boys, most having never been away from home, even imagined the realities of war, are exposed to the most horrific weapons known to warfare. The greatest weapon in the military is Esprit de corps, the common spirit existing between members of a battle group, their affection and protection of one another. Do you expect one not to become unglued when he sees his friends spattered like “roadkill” anywhere?

When men fought with swords, even rifles, war was very personal. More were killed in WWII with bayonets than any other way. Modern warfare, soldiers playing with video games, aiming drones at targets, never recognizing the destruction of property and lives like the state-controlled media, judgmental, politically incorrect. Do you actually think that elected politicians, selected news media who visit sanitized war fronts actually see the truth?

Jesus, the way, the truth, the life (John 14:6,17:17) standing before Pilate and Pilate, said, “What is truth?” (Pilate was probably more interested in his 15 year old wife than the truth.) Satin is the prince of this world, wants everyone, loves war. He knows that nations will enslave citizens with debt to fight wars. Credit and debt is addictive. Lucifer is mentioned only one time in God's Word, (Isaiah 14:12) but his shadow there, as in our lives, inescapable. The best lessons in economics are not taught in the classroom, but in the reality of business. (license, payroll, taxes, employees). We are engaged in the present economic struggle because politicians, government, academia, have never run a business with the risk involved. We are engaged, unglued, in this ten year war because politicians, military “experts” have never seen or suffered the horrors of war. As General Smedley Butler said, “War is a racket.”

We are in a global financial cycle. Just as it took WWII to drag America out of the Great Depression, we think that an unglued world financial debacle will drag us out of this depression. There was a time when people, the world over, if they could not pay with cash, did without. With credit cards, fiat currency backed by nothing except thin air, around the globe, international lying, cheating, stealing by bankers and nations. The destruction of war, the treatment of dead, wounded, (even veterans) seems trivial and of little consequence. Unglued, anything goes, even the Captain can leave his sinking ship, even a Superpower, commander-in-chief, GLUED only to his self preservation.