Tripping the Light Fanstastic

Penance requires . . . the sinner to endure all things willingly,
be contrite of heart, confess with the lips,
and practice complete humility and fruitful satisfaction
--Catechism, Seven Sacraments

Caterpillar: Who are YOU?
Alice: I -- I hardly know, sir, just at present --
at least I know who I was when I got up this morning,
but I think I must have been changed several times since then
--Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carrol
________________

Ranger continues with Part Deuce of playing fast and loose with history . . .

In 1950 the U.S. fought a war to protect the South Koreans from the North Koreans, which seems odd since our policy the previous year was to allow a Communist takeover of China. Why fight over little Korea, while allowing the Chinese to take over a large segment of the world's population? If the Chinese are inscrutable, the U.S. is even moreso, at times.

Is this a continuation of the trend begun in the Spanish-American War, dictating domination of little guys, while allowing the Big Dogs to do as they wish? It seems we still inhabit that mindset today since the U.S. likes to play tough guy with little states while acquiescing to the really powerful.

Next came French Indochina, or simply, Southeast Asia: A foray into building nations that were not even nations, and fighting a French colonial war by extension and calling it containment and anti-Communist crusade. A rose by any other name ... We kept the dominoes from falling and killed bunches of Communists before throwing in the towel

Then came the invasion of Grenada, which proved that 11,000 U.S. soldiers, Marines and a few SEALS and Delta dudes could kick ass on 300+ Cubans. Let that be a lesson. Flush with victory, we invaded Panama to practice a little regime change.

Again, wildly successful, unless one stops to ponder why or what the purpose of the exercise happened to be. Again, it was indubitably a lesson that the U.S. can kick around the little guy without breaking a sweat. Why have a massive Department of Defense apparatus if you can't play with it now and again.

Next to the First Gulf War, or GWI to those in the know, and the liberation of Kuwait. Which implies, erroneously, that Kuwait is part of the liberal democratic tradition. Kuwait is free of Iraq, but so what? Freedom per se is absent, despite our best publicity efforts.

Whether a royal family member or Saddam Hussein controlled the oil, where lies the benefit to the American people who lent their Army to exiled royals living large in London while our troops freed their little sand box.

Now, Afghanistan and Iraq are the essential wars du jour. What will they gain for the U.S.? What will they lose?

So that's Ranger's non-rigorous, unscientific whirl around the U.S.'s modern historical dance floor. The question is: What was the purpose of any of it?

--Jim