Cheerful interventionists take note

When it comes to war, any place you begin to think about or discuss the topic could be the wrong place. But let me this time start with these pictures of an American soldier, wounded and about to die, being worked on by a medic. I want to start here this time because of a certain type of guy who cheerfully supports the use of military force in almost any circumstance, because he is or was part of the military, and has pride and confidence in what the military can do. This cheerful interventionist almost always talks about how he supports the troops, and he likes to bring up individual stories of average American boys in the military. Handing out toys. Fixing a school. That danged truck, stuck in the mud again. To him I say this time you were warned that it might not be a good idea to send our boys in. This time hundreds of thousands of people, who you scoffed at, said so. This time the evidence for war was absent while you cheerfully supported the idea. But now hundreds and hundreds of those American boys who you claim to love are dying in pitiful circumstances like this son did. Next time, please next time, you should mean it when you say that war is a last resort. So that we don't have to learn the same lesson every thirty years, paid for with the lifeless bodies of thousands of our earnest American boys. Who you say you love.