War Is Here! And it’s not just in Syria and Iraq. It is alive and thriving in the United States.
It is hard to believe that what we see in videos almost daily is actually a war of the worst kind. It’s a war of the “worst kind” because it’s here on American shores and between Americans.
War is not new to the world. It certainly is not new to the United States. But it has been more than a century since a war that involved America and Americans actually took place on American soil. The Civil War from 1861 to 1865 was the last war to invade our borders. In that one, 600,000 Americans gave their lives fighting about slavery. It changed our nation forever — not just in putting the injustices of slavery at the top of the news for generations, but for many of those who gave their lives it meant their heritage through children and grandchildren would never be achieved, cut short by an American war. It also meant they died at the hands of other Americans. That was and still is hard to reconcile.
We may be watching that reoccur in America today.
And it’s not just ON the streets.
Get In The Faces of Cabinet Members
It’s one thing to peacefully protest. Our nation was built on that tenet of democracy. But when does “peaceful” stop and “confrontation” begin?
We forgot about the riots in Baltimore in which police were physically assaulted, there were multiple injuries of rioters and police. (we show a graphic video of Baltimore violence playing out on city streets in which regular citizens and policemen were assaulted)
It seems that the horrors that play out on the streets are important only when the media need a juicy story. And when the need for those headlines and gory video fade away, so does the reporting. The news is only important when a tragedy with death and destruction and/or police brutality are important for the “appropriate” headline, OR it could simply be turning an otherwise benign White House Oval Office meeting into a weaponized call-to-arms:
That was NBC’s recount of rapper Kanye West meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office. While NBC did not “attack” Kanye, they certainly in this story took jabs at his “40 different topics” NBC reported he brought up while speaking to the President, pointing to the fact a doctor diagnosed Kanye as bi-polar. But media attacks against Americans — like Kanye West — are rampant. And they’re NOT news stories:
CNN pundit Don Lemon used rap star Kanye West’s dead mother to attack him for his political views Thursday, saying that if his mother were still alive, she “would be embarrassed” by his White House visit with President Trump.
Lemon, who has been a constant critic of the President, took umbrage at West’s appearance in the Oval Office as a new music licensing law was signed. “I have no animosity for Kanye West,” Lemon said on CNN. “I’m just going to be honest and I may get in a lot of trouble for it. I actually feel bad for him. What I saw was a minstrel show today. Him in front of all these white people, mostly white people, embarrassing himself and embarrassing Americans, but mostly African-Americans, because every one of them is sitting either at home or with their phones, watching this, cringing.”
“Kanye needs help, this has nothing to do with being liberal or a conservative. We have to stop pretending… like this is normal,” Lemon said.
CNN actually hosted a panel discussion about Kanye’s meeting with the President in which one political pundit called Kanye President Trump’s “token Negro.”
In the African American community, “them’s fightin’ words!” Wait…the pundit who called Kanye Trump’s “token Negro” WAS A BLACK PERSON!
What Is War?
OK: We’ve taken the easy way to open this conversation about War. We need to get to the “nitty-gritty:” What IS War?
Cicero defines war broadly as “a contention by force;” Hugo Grotius adds that “war is the state of contending parties.” Thomas Hobbes notes that war is also an attitude: “By war is meant a state of affairs, which may exist even while its operations are not continued;” Denis Diderot comments that war is “a convulsive and violent disease of the body politic;” for Karl von Clausewitz, “war is the continuation of politics by other means,” and so on. Each definition has its strengths and weaknesses, but often is the culmination of the writer’s broader philosophical positions.
For example, the notion that wars only involve states — as Clausewitz implies — references a strong political theory that assumes politics can only involve states and that war is in some manner or form a reflection of political activity. ‘War’ defined by Webster’s Dictionary is a state of open and declared hostile armed conflict between states or nations, or a period of such conflict. This maintains that war needs to be explicitly declared and to be between states to be a war. Rousseau argues this position: “War is constituted by a relation between things, and not between persons…War then is a relation, not between man and man, but between State and State…” (The Social Contract).
When Does Confrontation Become War?
That’s a good question. And Confrontation does not easily become War. There’s NO easy answer, but answer it we must.
Comparing what we are watching today to other times of conflict on U.S. soil may seem unreasonable to some. After all, we DID have the National Guard gun down rioters at Kent State during the Vietnam conflict. Those were protests that became violent riots. Barack Obama’s mentor William Ayers with his girlfriend Bernadette Dorn of the terrorist group Weather Underground bombed a police station and a policeman was killed. Is it safe for us to allege we’re facing something similar today?
Let’s think that through together:
- Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA) was gunned down at a baseball practice of GOP House members in Washington D.C. by a nutjob who was actually there to do just that — kill Republican members of Congress;
- Rioters in Portland and Berkeley have on several occasions razed businesses, injured private citizens during riots, attacked others, all in the name of Anti-fascism when in fact they are the fascists they say they are fighting!
- The recent Baltimore riots morphed into violence that resulted in personal injuries for civilians AND police as well as immense damage to personal property.
When will it be appropriate to call what we are seeing “War?”
One might say that watching Leftist politicians instruct their political adherents to “get in the faces of Administration employees and tell them they’re not welcome here,” or to “drive them out of restaurants and gas stations,” or to stand next to their tables in restaurants threatening them is all simply peaceful and legal political demonstrating.
But isn’t all of the above when put in total a type of inciting to riot? “Inciting to riot” is against the law.
Against the Law?
Saying that some of these actions are “against the law” is a joke: we don’t enforce laws — or quite a few of them. Rahm Emanuel — mayor of Chicago — is watching as every weekend dozens of Chicagoans are slaughtered on the streets. That’s been happening for several years. Yet Rahm simply allows it to continue and even restricts Chicago police, preventing them from taking measures that are necessary to stop the killing.
Isn’t that Anarchy?
“Anarchy: Absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose.”
I totally agree with those that say that Chicago is stricken with “the absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose.” A mayor of a city should always keep and maintain a common standard and purpose — if nothing else, to assure the safety of his city’s residents!
Summary
What scares me for my grandchildren is the ever-growing benign acceptance of American leaders of this anarchy, rioting, and terrorization of American citizens that virtually goes unchecked. Maybe they allow it with some hope that it will get so bad it will force Americans to make political changes that those leaders want. Barack Obama himself made it clear he wanted to lead “in the fundamental change of America.” America is fundamentally changing — that’s for certain. But these changes are NOT for the better.
When political leaders stand in front of voters and constituents and instruct those listening to aggressively confront those with whom they hold political differences, are those leaders so blind as to think numbering among all who listen are NOT a few who take those cries literally? Maxine Waters did not only cry with a bullhorn for voters to aggressively confront Trump Administration members on the street, in restaurants, and even in gas stations, she has since doubled and tripled down on her instructions!
Over a year ago on this blog site, I told all who looked in what the difference between Liberals and Conservatives is. I’ll repeat it here for all of you:
“Conservatives don’t like what Liberals stand for. Liberals HATE Conservatives.”
Hatred goes a long way toward inciting anger and violence. Violence goes a long way toward the incitement of terror, bombing, and physical assault. Terror, bombings, and assault are a pre-cursor to War.
I’m not trying to scare everyone here. But on the eve of the midterm elections, we MUST be mindful of who we vote for. Whoever wins these elections will collectively be in positions of leading America into the ratcheting-down of this angry rhetoric that is inciting violence. If we’re not watchful; if we do NOT vote and vote our hearts; if we allow the leaders of these violent Leftists to assume or maintain leadership, we will inevitably slide into a war on American soil.
We are NOT far from that now.
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