Jack of Harts

The souk. Narrow alleys with their centuries of history pressing in on the marketplace shops. The scent of spice, of dust, and camel dung overwhelming your senses. Taste the sharp mint tea, the iced melon, the orange blossom water. Witness the dazzling, bewildering, astounding array of wares that confuse the eyes. The chant of the muezzin droning over the babble of many languages, rising and falling at all hours of the night and day in this sleepless, restless place.

In the Goblin Souk, you will find stories of genies, lamps, and wishes both granted and unfulfilled. Beware the Souk. You may leave with more than you are prepared for… or less…

War! War! What is it good for? That was an old saying back in the 60s and 70s, aimed at the Vietnam War. Which everybody knows wasn’t a real war. Congress didn’t declare it, and we didn’t win it, so it couldn’t possibly be a war. Right?

Twenty years ago, when we went to war with Iraq, there was no real debate. Americans were 60% against going to war with Iraq, but the news coverage was at least two thirds in favor of it. And the one third against was carefully managed so it couldn’t win the argument. And it worked. A constant thrum of pro war propaganda on all news channels and the newspaper shifted public opinion enough that we supported war with Iraq.

I’ve seen the same thing in the news over the last week. Even the lefty mainstream news has been parroting many of the pro war points, even as they’ve been preaching their standard Trump Evil message to the believers. Fox News has been positively rabid in their support of bombing Iran. And honestly, who DOESN’T want to bomb Iran? Yes, yes, I know that bombing a country is an act of war. But Americans have been taught for literally generations in school and news that you can bomb someone without being at war with them. It’s crazy, but it’s a bloody matter of truth in our popular culture now.

But you know what? There’s been debate over that over the last week. Debate over war. Debate over bombing AS an act of war. Across the political divides, off the main news channels and newspapers, there’s been a HUGE and LOUD debate over this whole thing. And the people have been clear.

No forever wars.

And that is making a difference. It is being heard. It is changing the narrative. In a way it wasn’t allowed to make a difference twenty years ago, when the news could simply silence dissent by not airing it. Or five years ago, when the government “asked” social media to silence it. Today dissent is heard, it’s loud, and I find that to be amazing.

Healthy. Good.

Iran has been at war with us since their religious revolution in 1980. They started by taking our diplomats prisoner in Tehran. They went on to kill American Marines who were trying to stabilize Lebanon against the revolution Iranian-sponsored terrorists started. They’ve killed hundreds, maybe thousands of Americans in the decades since depending on which estimates you look at. They’ve influenced, bought off, or overthrown nations to make them friendly to their cause. And we’ve responded by influencing, buying off, or overthrowing nations to make them friendly to our cause.

Israel has weathered decades of assaults and terrorist attacks from Irianian proxies, and then there was the 10-7 attack that slaughtered a thousand Israelis in one day. They’ve smashed most of Iran’s pet terrorists flat since then, and even shot down direct Iranian attacks on their homeland.

Through all of this, we’ve tried to avoid open warfare with Iran. Americans are sick and tired of the proxy wars. We don’t want to fight them anymore. It’s one of the reasons American voters have voted for Trump three elections in a row now. To end the forever wars. To stop fighting in flee-bitten hellholes. To stop sending our young men and women into harm’s way on foreign soil.

Then Israel finally struck back at Iran with a full-scale campaign of destruction aimed at Iranian military and nuclear targets. The Iranians responded by shooting missiles at Israeli cities. And now we upped the ante by rearranging the landscape above their nuclear facilities with our biggest bunker-busting bombs. It was awesome to see.

But I don’t want to see it. I don’t want war with Iran. I don’t want Iran touched by the kind of destruction their proxies have seen. Or us. But the drums of war and regime change are pounding away, and I don’t know if we can stop it.