August 17, 2005

Tarbaby

We’re fighting this war overseas, we’re told, so that we won’t have to fight it over here. Of course, it’s no longer a war, it’s a struggle, and we’re not anymore contending against terrorists, but extremists. But whatever the political two-stepping, just don’t let it get it too close to home.

One other way, of course, to do all that is to tell folk to go out and shop and leave the sacrificing to our boys (and girls) over there having the time of their lives, many for the last time. Other ways are to keep the flag-draped coffins away from the press, ignore and avoid the funerals, take long naps and vacations so to get on with your life, tell folk you think about them every day, read a book about the history of salt, and whatever else it takes to shut it all out and try to figure out a way to get unstuck from the tarbaby.

Trouble is that whatever moat one tries to build around the castle or boiling oil one pours over the walls, war by whatever name and by war’s very nature as a conflict between losers will ultimately rear its head. Sometimes it’ll even pitch a tent just on the other side of the moat.

Marie Antoinette had a similar problem and got quite annoyed about it. So, she just baked a cake. Of course, she’d have done better had she just kept her head about it all.

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