War Pheromones

[Jackpine Radical]

2. There is an old principle taught to fledgeling officers at West Point.

They are told that if they find themselves in dire circumstances and have no idea what to do, they should do SOMETHING. Doing anything is better than doing nothing.

I have always considered this one of the stupidest maxims I had ever heard. However, it is what we always do in crises. Do SOMETHING! Make it big, like our reaction to 9-11 (TSA, Homeland Security, masking tape, invade 2 countries, make Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo wortldwide household names, bankrupt ourselves with tax cuts & multi-trillion-dollar military expenditures and all the rest of it.

We will hit the hornets' nest, we will be stung, and we will unleash a new wave of total craziness in our outrage at being stung.

And what I just realized as I was typing this is that most likely no candidate less hawkish than Hillary has a prayer in 2016.