August 9, 2017, and it’s 6:30 on a pleasant Wednesday afternoon. I want to record this date so I will remember. We spent the morning at the doctor’s office, and the afternoon riding around our county with both my Mom and my Dad. Right now, as I look over my keyboard to the east, I am enjoying a nice pour of Blanton’s.

My mind today has been on our military, and consequences, and decisions. Old, long forgotten decisions and current decisions. I won’t waste my time pointing fingers and laying blame, because once this begins, we won’t be anything but horrified. No party will console us. We will only have our families, our friends, and God.

Honestly, my mind has also been on a quote from a movie that I first saw a couple of years ago for the first time, even though it has been out for a long time. I watched it, re-watched it and watched it  again. It is one of those movies I never scroll past when I find it on TV. I bought the movie. There are, I’m sure, countless blogs about this movie and the dialog between the characters, but for some reason, there is one conversation that keeps repeating over and over, and has to do with the hopelessness of the situation, right now,at this particular place and time for one character pleading for his life.

No Country For Old Men….

You don’t have to do this.

Do you have any idea how crazy you are?

In between these two lines is a question, asked by the killer, that we need to ponder right now, without political bias, but we are unable.

If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?

In the nineteen fifties, under Harry Truman, we went to war with North Korea. We followed a rule that we adopted at the end of world war II and it has brought us to this. When the various regions of our planet have been at war for ever, why did we decide that we should impose our will on others? We picked and chose who would win and who would lose, and made many friends in the process. We also made many enemies. Most of our friends are very fickle and most of our enemies are not.

I have one belief on the matter of war.

If a country has been attacked or is in imminent danger of being attacked, there are no rules. Kill, win and come home. It will be horrible, as it always has been. Rules are for people who want to fight the same war over and over.

Do you have any idea how crazy you are?

You don’t have to do this.

We still have time to come home and turn the world over to fight it’s own battles. Maybe it will be alright for now.

We need a new rule to follow.

ws