I have been anti-war for legal, fiscal, moral, strategic, and philosophical reasons for years. Most people don’t care about any of it. A good chunk of people justify whatever fill-in-the-blank war because their guy initiated it.
We are living in one of the most childishly tribal times for a largest enough group of people, that the majority who intuitively dislike war (but aren’t obsessed with politics) have become irrelevant.
When enough people feel the pain of war, they likely still wont care because they wont connect those pains to war. Will that pain ever come? Of course, in multiple forms.
Inflation from the spending/debt/money creation that war necessitates. No one cares about that anyway, or at least they don’t understand how government spending effects their purchasing power.
And, when blowback comes and Americans are killed, they will be angry with “terrorists” and not consider the decades long cycle that foreign interventions have given us.
Very few will care about all the interventions that get military men killed either. Unless there is a draft, an all-volunteer military allows most people to remain one step removed from the pain or responsibility of Americans dying in a non-defensive war on foreign soil.
And practically no one will care about the civilian lives ruined nor the collateral damage of war that lasts for years after the last bullet is fired–decimated infrastructure, ruined economies, destruction of supply chains, etc. Because America’s war won’t intentionally target civilians, people will disassociate the larger effects that any war brings to any country.
Ayatollah then Khamenei’s Iran has been horrible. I have no good words for them. Nothing I am saying is a defense of their decades-long actions. But taking down their regime isn’t any guarantee that anything will be fixed in that country or region. See Afghanistan for proof of that possibility. We are dealing with religious zealotry and tribal connections that are centuries old, so any stability will almost surely require long term investment and influence, only possible through more American dollars and a big enough local presence to be influential. And that nation building BS is just another version of American empire building that most people oppose, but can’t see happening because the 24/7 coverage will stop when the big, bad, booms of war stop happening.
I don’t think most people follow or care about any of this stuff. And frankly, they shouldn’t have to. I wish our government’s default mode was non-intervention and staying out of everyone’s business (both domestically and in foreign countries), but its not.
So people go about their lives, not understanding or caring about the cause and effect of any of this stuff. Nothing I say or do is going to change the disassociation nor the partisan loyalty blinders. I post or comment on any of this stuff because I am entertained by it and I want to be on record as someone who spoke out against it. But making people care or changing anyone’s mind…gave up on that a long time ago.
You know what I am going to say, because I have said it many times–the Republic has been dead for years. We are just watching the sunset. There is no fixing the problems at this point. No critical mass of people even care. I am just here to call out the nonsense as it happens. Its a hobby that entertains me, and not much else.
