We’ve been volunteering to fight monsters since the days when (William) McKinley -- with the encouragement of Joseph Pulitzer and W. R. Hearst -- began railing against Spain for its treatment of Cuba.
Possibly earlier, if you count our crusade to help liberate the Tejanos and a whole bunch of other people from Mexico.
I like the joke that’s making the rounds that no matter who Americans vote for as president, they get John McCain, which is a shorthand way of saying that the National Security State is the unofficial fourth and most powerful branch of the US government. Or if you prefer, the MICIMATT (the military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academe-think-tank complex).
Speaking of the media, you can always count on US media talking heads issuing resounding hosannas to the highest whenever a US president bombs a foreign country. Remember when reporters gushed that Donald Trump had finally become a real president in 2017 when he bombed Syria? Trump, who expressed contempt for McCain, finally became him -- and earned the MICIMATT’s approval -- when he started launching missiles to kill foreigners.
Nine more months of Red MAGA and Blue MAGA screeching at each other. And at all of us who just don't want to play in their litterbox any longer.
