Two world “leaders” dependent on war for personal legal reasons or bumping their poll numbers up have just started a war.  There is no question these two public men should be cautious and very public about entering a war in the names of their nation. But it seems not. Yes, the enemy is very easy to hate and for legitimate even strategic reasons. Even so, what will get lost in this war’s fog is the civilian and soldier casualties if this war wears on.  This writer will make no predictions, but every other regime change this country has had unanticipated consequences. When we take on a fundamentalist religious regime, the prospects for a low casualty victory are very low indeed.  If nothing else this war will be a lesson to everyone regarding the damage a religious nationalist of any stripe or denomination can do to a government and its diverse citizens. 

A necessary war is a defensive war. The case for war must be made by more than just one or a few people. This war has been started without credible rationale, outside Constitutional law, and has been secretly launchd based on private rationale. The regime in Iran has perpetuated horrors on their people and of course our leadership is confident they can use the abusive history of Iran to justify this action? Fighting a war though welds the history of the warring nations together for a period lasting long after the actual warfare flares out. Viet Nam and the United States share a history birthed in the bloody passions of both national stories. For future generations our stories will share the echoes of that painful bond. In this democracy the decision to adopt and marry another nation’s story through the declaration of war has to be shared with the people who must live and some die with the consequences. The ‘behind-closed-doors’ decision to declare for war with Iran was not public or even considered in an outright manner. The decision was simply announced more or less after the fact. This is dangerous arrogance. Every decision a president makes outside public authority in the United States for the citizens of the United States is above his or her pay grade or authority. Those presidents deserve corrective action as an inappropriate subordinates to the roles of their public offices. 

Modest Proposal for Good

Follow Constitutional law. Trust “we the people”. Every leader must become a “public person. Be a public president in the democracy. Support law and order by modeling how one submits to and wrestles with the provisions of that public law. Always apply what gifts you have to exhaust the possibilities of peaceful resolution. As for voters, this project advises never again elect a mind already “at-war” as its default setting. That would be good.