Dogs of war keep barking

How do we explain that, in this land, the dogs of war never stop barking? They’re straining at the gates of Mosul, Aleppo, Donetsk, Tehran. Our generals themselves confess that dumping ordnance on the Middle East only expands retaliation. For every civilian we incinerate, 10 new fighters arise, they fret.

More Vietnam veterans have committed suicide than were killed in combat. Worse figures have begun all over again. Have we no care for our young people?

Is it the weapons industry or the oil giants who demand the din of war? Does it require no more than believing their violence is insane, while ours contains the magic touch? Both have the same results for flesh and grieving. Does our brand of masculinity crave violence to prove itself? Without a draft, are too few of us touched by the brutalization of our soldiers to care? Is it bravado or indifference?

Not without hope, we are blessed to have the voices of women, the marginalized and defenders of our wounded planet coming from below. But unless their resistance and ours are enlarged, the growling and snapping of the dogs of war will drown us out and drag us under.

Fred Strange

Spokane