I was talking to a friend of mine about investments not too long ago. He’s one of the most disciplined people I know. He’s one of the few people that I know that gives legitimate thought to every financial decision he makes…and he’s able to relate a lot of things to finances. One of the coolest things we talked about was opportunity cost, versus mental health. I imagine that’s his way of staying normal and not controlled by money. He rationalizes when it’s time to take a break and then vacations for like a month, sparing few expenses in the process, then goes back to his rational, measured approach to life. To give an example, he ate the exact same salad for dinner every day for 2 years because he liked the taste, it was cheaper to buy than making it, and it saved him time and the mental load of having to think about dinner.
Remember when our political leaders put that much thought into their actions? Maybe a century ago there was this much thought and more, but with the understanding that whatever the cause was, it necessitated some form of loss. Ever since Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the U.S. has increasingly invested less thought into the entering of war. There was the cold war, which was A LOT of posturing and near miss moments of egos and misinformation, but that was between two nations with the ability to beat each other. One of the reasons they have weight classes in boxing. Mike Tyson against a bunch of middleweight legends would be a series of first round knockouts in his favor. Even against folks his size and bigger he did that, but at least against heavyweights every fight could’ve gone either way.
Why We Join
As a veteran, I can honestly say that I didn’t join the Air Force to actually go to war. I was fleeing from a war in the streets, the internal war I was having with myself, and the embarrassment that I was about to drop out of college anyway. I wasn’t even paying attention to geopolitics at the time…hood politics were more an immediate influence. At that time, I had seen some things firsthand; plenty of death, heartache and emotional trauma of street wars. Entering the military I understood the cost of war, enough to know that there was very little if any redeeming value objectively speaking. When I took the oath of enlistment they hit me with the propaganda that I was joining the world’s most powerful military. Historically speaking there was no evidence of this, but I wasn’t trying to debate weight classes at that time.
In learning my first job I was around people that knew a lot about the U.S. military capabilities…and guns. They knew absolutely nothing about war outside of what every kid in America is taught. You know, “if it were not for the Americans, we’d all be speaking German” and shit like that. A statement all of these guys seemed to regurgitate over and over. No mention of Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, the invasion of Panama, Somalia, Kosovo or anything like that. They only thought back to WW2 in making this assessment. Their ignorance of the true attributes of war, along with universal buy in to the propaganda, led to a lack of respect for what war is. Not to mention, we weren’t at war at the time, this was before 9/11 so people were good and comfy. ALL of that changed after 9/11. Several of those guys that bought in were making every excuse to get out. They wanted NO parts of actual war. They were afraid of being a casualty even though they were just spewing the fact sheet stats of every fighter jet. Craziness!
Safe From A Distance
I understand though. It’s easy to talk shit when you don’t have to fight. And typically, almost 100% of the time in the modern era, the folks making the decision to fight aren’t actually fighting. When it’s not your life or livelihood on the line, everything is theoretical, and in theory, shit can go either way. Win or lose, they’ve done their job and they walk away unconcerned with their performance. If they beat little guys they gloat, if they get whooped though, crickets.
In boxing, there are weight classes, and true some of those smaller guys hit hard. Maybe not enough to knockout a heavyweight, but hard enough for him to feel it. The current regime is filled with guys that fantasized about hitting, with a fear of getting hit. Needless to say, not the type of people you want next to you in wartime situations, let alone LEADING wartime situations…yet here we are.
Wanna Be Starting Something
Israel is like the manipulative little brother that antagonizes EVERYONE because he knows his big brother got those hands. He knows that all he has to do is come crying to his big brother and protection is given. In years past, that protection has been in the way of money and equipping defense systems…however, under GOP leadership it has always been war. Iraq twice, Afghanistan once, and now Iran. That’s going back 35 years! In those 35 years there have only been a small handful of years that we were not officially at war. Even in those unofficial years we were slapping and threatening our little brother’s rivals because he said he was scared of them. This one is different though.
Unlike those fights with Iraq and in Afghanistan, Iran has been in the gym preparing for the little brother and big brother. Iran is also not in the same weight class as the little brother, actually, they’re about the same size as the big brother. The only meaningful differences are reputation and territory. The little brother tells big brother “I’m gonna slap the shit out of them if you don’t” and instead of asking “why” or recommending getting over the differences, we slapped them. None of the restraint that a reasonable person shows when dealing with someone of a similar size that has been in the gym too. One could say, it was a sucker punch, and Iran finally said “fuck this” and punched back. However, they’re throwing combinations in a fashion we’ve never seen, and certainly didn’t prepare for. As they say, this time hits different.
Iran has enough firepower, technical knowhow and determination to demolish the little brother. They have enough stamina to withstand a fair fight with the big brother as well. A reality that the big brother is now seeing, and seeing as we have leadership that lacks restraint, respect, or any understanding of war, they’re considering fighting dirty just to save face. Sadly, these muthafuckas don’t know the opportunity cost of this emotionally unstable decision. They never considered any of the intangibles or anything. They’re fighting this war like there’s a reset button available to them. No do overs in the game of life though.
From My View
I see this through the lens of a person that understands street war, and geopolitical war. I met and got cool with people in Afghanistan that never made it home. I’ve had several childhood friends shot or murdered in the streets. Beyond the death toll there’s a psychological toll that impacts people in it. That goes for the people getting hit and the ones doing the hitting. I’ve seen the mental scars that people in both scenarios have from taking the lives of people as well as having their friends taken. The paranoia of believing they could be next and wanting to make sure their kids were safe and all that. Shit ain’t sweet by any stretch of the imagination. Also, in my observation at least, there is more reverence from the leaders for the folks taken out in street battles than geopolitical ones. In the streets, the leaders know your name, in the military, you are one of many faceless, nameless “troops” or “boots on ground” statistical figures. But again, the real-world toll is the same.
The news highlights the daily cost of the war in dollars…but that’s real time cost. They are not factoring in the long-term cost of disabilities that the taxpayers will have to pay generations later. They are not factoring in the psychological damage done to the men and women of the armed services. They are not factoring the perception our friends have of us constantly starting fights because of our little brother. They are not factoring in the reputational cost of losing fairly or winning dirtily. They simply aren’t thinking about any of the things that they should be thinking about, and that’s troubling. No one in charge right now is taking any of this seriously and it is evident to our friends and foes alike. Neither Russia nor China could have scripted this any better than how it is going for them.
Everything Has Changed
No matter how old you are, America as you have known it no longer exists. The country has NEVER been in such dire straits as we are now on a geopolitical level. We have never been in a situation with so few paths to salvage what we can and build back stronger. This fight with Iran is Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas. Symbolically speaking the aura of invincibility has been removed, and an effective strategy, at least theoretically speaking of “how” to beat us is now understood. Our internal confidence is not the same and oddly enough, there are rape charges on the table as well…though Mike was probably innocent of his and he did time for it whereas it’s the exact opposite for the current regime.
We deserve better as a country…well, half of us deserve better, the other half deserves what we’re all unfortunately getting. Maybe, this will teach us to check our little brother before fighting his battles. Maybe it’ll teach us to show more restraint in general or maybe it’ll finally wake up the other half that were too stupid or too gullible to know that what we are seeing was the only rational outcome for voting a regime like this in. It would be great if this yields a long-term positive outcome that course corrects for our country. Don’t count on that though. Seeing as our history books typically only include the highlights, 100 years from now another idiot will probably be in charge of the country. For now, though, in this era, we gotta focus on getting through it by fighting for change where we are, or taking our economic and cultural talents elsewhere. Whichever side of that you fall on, I wish you plenty success with it, but there is no reasonable option to sit idly by.