In May of 2011, an American Navy Seal team breached a compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan. Inside the compound they found, shot and killed a cowering Osama Bin Laden. It was one of the greatest military victories in American history.

America and her allies celebrated the death of the man who brought death and destruction to the streets of New York City. The man who toppled the twin towers as we all watched. The man who ended our innocence. We suddenly felt safe again. Safe from evil that terrorized the world in the name of God.

But, killing Osama Bin Laden did not kill evil. It simply killed the face of evil. Our celebration was naive, at best.

Since that time we’ve been involved in a meandering war in Afghanistan. A listless and pointless exercise that started with a bang and ended with a whimper. American troops hurriedly forced to leave under cover a darkness. Leaving behind billions in military weapons and supplies for the same terrorists to deploy against American interests around the world. A fitting end to a feckless attempt to chase our demons into a cave.

Back at home we’ve been involved in another war. Safe from evil, many turned their collective efforts toward new and polarizing culture war. An effort by many to spread their values, beliefs and practices to the masses. A winner-take-all battle royale for the soul of the country.

Photo courtesy of Callum Shaw via Unsplash

We’ve been busy in the United States. Busy tearing down statues and arguing about mask mandates and which personality we should cancel this week. Both sides vehemently committed to their cause. Some of the topics deserve our attention. But, increasingly these topics are weaponized by the fringes on our political parties. Weapons in a war of words with seemingly no end in sight.

Politics used to serve as a platform through which we might resolve our differences. Today it serves as a platform ready made for the cause de jour. A platform for raising money for campaign coffers and Political Action Committees. A platform for faux Outrage.

While we’ve been naively arguing about statues and whether professional football millionaires should be allowed to take a knee, the world’s most evil dictators have been watching. We spent years arguing about whether Russia influenced our elections in 2016. While our politicians were spinning yarns about which side is to blame, Russia was secretly preparing for war.

A statue of Abraham Lincoln is removed. Courtesy The Art Newspaper

See, while these internal battles seem important to some, they simply serve as a distraction to the greater issues. And, while the ass-clowns in Washington tussled with each other, many adults in the room wondered “isn’t there something more important that Republicans and Democrats should be doing?”

It turns out the adults were right. Late last week 150,000 Russian troops launched an unprecedented war on Ukraine. The depth and. breadth of the assault shocked us. It shouldn’t. A lot of people in Washington, DC get paid a lot of money to keep these kinds of things from shocking us.

In a raw display of Godless Imperialism, Russian bombs and missiles rained down on the Ukrainian people. Death and destruction on a massive scale. Thousands will die in an egotistical land grab. Ukrainians cower in subway tunnels, praying for America to help. They won’t get it.

Over the weekend, western leaders agreed to freeze Vladimir Putin’s personal assets. In response, Putin placed the country’s nuclear response team on high alert. A move that suggests to the Russian people that the West might launch a surprise Nuclear attack on Russia in response to Ukraine. The stakes in this stand off are very, very high.

The President of the People’s Republic of China is watching us dither. Xi Jinping is readying himself for war. Taiwan is next. Our leaders will feign surprise and outrage, again. Sanctions will follow. Taiwan will fall. More death and destruction.

The Face of Evil

We patted ourselves on the back for killing evil back in 2011. We didn’t kill evil. We simply killed the face of evil. Evil has been lurking in the shadows, sharpening his claws, planning and preparing to strike.

The kind of full-scale military attack that took place last week takes years of planning. It takes years to build the kind of stockpiles of bullets, bombs, missies and fuel to undertake such an exercise. And, quite simply, we missed it. Cause why the new face of evil was preparing, we were dithering with political theater and endless arguments over trivial matters.

The Mother of All Sanctions

The man with the keys to the world’s largest nuclear arsenal was watching. He saw the opening and he pounced. And, in response we promise “the mother of all sanctions”. That’s like taking crayons away from the third grade bully. It’s too little, too weak, too late. We were once the world’s greatest superpower. Today we are the world’s Mall Cop.

As of 2021, we import around 254 million barrels of oil each day from Russia. That’s around ten percent of our daily consumption.
If we had a spine we would immediately stop that nonsense. But, we won’t. Because doing so would require us to increase our own oil production. And, that just doesn’t fit with our current narrative.

Stopping those Russian imports will also cause gas to reach $8.00 a gallon. That will not play well in the mid-term elections. When you fill up your tank this week, 10% of your money will go to support the death and destruction taking place in Ukraine.

It’s time we get serious about the ass-clownery in Washington, DC. It’s time to send the adults back into the room. Or at least try to find some adults to babysit. It’s time to recognize that we didn’t send the clowns to Washington to play cultural war games. This stuff might seem important. It might make you think you’re winning some cerebral war of good verses evil. But, how silly all this might seem if a Nuclear bomb is detonated in Cincinnati while you are sleeping tonight.

So what do you think? Are you ready to pay $8.00 a gallon for gas to support freedom and democracy half way around the world? Are you ready to put an end to the endless, sophomoric bickering? I am.

I want to hear from you and I’ll do my best to respond to your comments. In the meantime would you mind sending this article to a few friends? Maybe it will help them better understand what’s at stake in Ukraine.

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The Ukrainian People Are Paying the Price for our Naïveté

The Face of Evil

The Mother of All Sanctions

© Tom Greene 2023. All Rights Reserved.