Why is it that whenever they poll the American public about the direction of the country, they always come up with the same answer, “The country is headed in the wrong direction”? It is usually by a wide margin—two-thirds of the country says, “Oops, wrong direction.” Everybody thinks it is because of the current president or because of a lackluster Congress, but the fact is, it’s happened with just about every recent president—Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and even the revered Ronald Reagan. Before that, it was Carter, Ford and Nixon. Is there something wrong with the presidents we elect, or is there something wrong with all of us? Maybe we expect the president to have a season where he has 105 wins or wins three out of four. If that’s what we expect, we can’t help but be disappointed. Besides, we can’t even seem to agree as to what constitutes a success and what’s a failure.
For example, was Iraq a success or a failure? Was it worth the ultimate cost of about two trillion dollars and 10,000 or so American lives, or not? My guess is that if you asked Obama and then asked John McCain, you would get very different answers.
What I’m fearful of is that we seem to be doing it again. We are getting suckered into overreacting to a situation that’s easy to get into and very difficult to leave. A few months ago, Americans were exhausted by the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and were becoming almost isolationist. Then, suddenly, Putin thinks this might be a good time to get his empire back and the Cold War is practically reignited. The Arab world is going through its version of who’s on first, what’s on second, and we don’t know who to root for, so a pox on all of them. Then along comes a new meanie—ISIS—and all they have to do is decapitate two American journalists and we’re ready to go to war again.
No wonder we feel we’re headed in the wrong direction—we are emotionally reacting to everything, and if one thing is certain, it’s that things are going to happen. The terrorists need an enemy to raise money, to recruit, to keep a high profile and to get headlines. What better way than to commit an atrocity? It’s not that these aren’t real enemies, its just you can’t base a foreign policy or military policy upon a reaction to a 24/7 news cycle. We are constantly bombarded by baloney-talking media heads whose entire war or security experience has been watching a war movie or two on Netflix. We need a thoughtful, careful military and security policy, not this knee-jerk policy, or we’re going to spend the next couple of decades constantly at war.
We personally have to insulate ourselves from this constant stimulation. My advice is to stop watching this all on cable news, if you can. It’s like a disease—a compulsion that we can’t break. If you must, read it in the newspaper or online. It’s easier to digest that way and won’t make you as crazy. We are all being manipulated by this 24/7 news cycle and it’s creating a climate where the government is being driven into constant artificial crises and looks like it’s about to make some stupid decisions again.
P.S. This Thursday, there is an event at Casa Escobar for the Wounded Warriors Project. Please attend. They need our help and support to aid in their recovery. It’s also a real reminder that war causes tremendous damage to many Americans and we owe them a debt.