Reaching for the Handles

"War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other."

-Paul Valery

Traveling these last several days, after the fortunate confluence of a few empty days on our family calendar. I feel terribly guilty for it.

At some point I should properly recount the wonderful details of the trip, which took us from the Cliffside condo up to Montreal, thence to Quebec where we stayed in a converted Augustinian convent and fell in love with this European city perched on the bluffs above the frigid St. Lawrence, then back down through Prescott to Alexandria Bay and our old, semi-abandoned hotel where we had such a great visit in the early days of our adventure here in 2020, then back to Cliffside and stifling heat yesterday. Never thought I'd see 95 degrees up here, but now I have.

The best of the trip was that we ignored the news, except when the image of a conventional blast at the entrance to a nuclear bunker filled the screen of my cellphone. I rolled over and whispered to P in bed, "Well, now I guess we're at war with Iran."

It put a damper on our Sunday.

One could discuss the constitutionality of the attack, or the lack thereof. Too easy, Donk, and no one cares because Dear Leader is no longer subject to that musty old document--just ask the Supreme Court.

Instead, let's briefly discuss how we got here, and what happens next.

Israel started this war, ostensibly to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons capability. It did not, however, have the ordinance to do the job--its guided munitions were too small. Only one country had the tools to eliminate the nuclear facilities, and that was us. So Israel started a war whose goal could only be accomplished by getting us to intervene. Which we did, dropping 60% of all the bunker busters we have in the arsenal on three targets. Thus, the U.S. entered the war according to someone else's plan, because our President is that stupid and starved for martial glory.

But now what? The Iranians moved the good stuff last week, so we likely blew up a bunch of empty facilities. And although they may be effectively decapitated for now and unable to engage in a conventional war, the Iranians aren't going to ignore the humiliation of what just happened. Nor will the rest of the world fail to take away a lesson about the U.S. as a country. This is a tactical victory, I suppose, but a strategic disaster.

So we're back to trying to figure out how to get out of here. The Irish will only take us if I promise to completely retire, which I can't afford to do right now. The Canucks will let us stay for six months a year. Maybe we ping like a pinball between countries for three months or so at a time. Do we keep a place here? It's not so dangerous for us in terms of getting hauled in by the goon squad, but New York makes a great terrorist target.

Who knows what happens next? It's all a little disorienting.