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The US has always been a reluctant warrior. We are slow to anger but fiercesome when aroused. We are not a warlike people though we have the most powerful and sophisticated military in the world. This is not unexpected in a country with a standard of living as high as ours.

Each war adds something to the US consciousness and the decision to go to war. As a nation, we do not count coup, we count dead Americans and we are willing to spend vast sums to avoid wartime casualties.

We continue to be haunted by Viet Nam before the specters of Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror are factored into the equation. None of these wars has ever lived up to their expectations or marketing packages.

Every one of these wars has been sold as “easy”, “quick”, “inexpensive” and “limited”. None of them have lived up to their billing.

The outcomes of wars since Korea have been generally unsatisfactory to the
American people. Too expensive as to blood, too unfocused as to outcomes, too long and too expensive financially.

The implications are enormous as to military readiness — lack of readiness really —, the potential for such an action to spin completely out of control and the possibilities for a confrontation with the Russians who are looking for an issue through which to re-assert their nascent return to super power status.

This is a very dangerous situation and the Congressional vote is likely to be a “no” vote. The US does not have a strategic national interest in a country the size of Syria. The Arab Spring has become a huge disaster.

BRC
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Everyone should be able to agree with the following:

“Let’s make the Straits of Hormuz an irrelevant game show question answer.”