It’s war

I take the pulse of my fellow exceptional Americans by accessing Google News and just now, on Tuesday, Taylor Swift is in top position on the site, having come “full circle” at the Grammy’s. Whew. This is a relief. I’ve been worried.

Thought we were plunging into WW III. Surely, if we were, it would be among the important stories.

Yesterday, after reading an article, I was certain we’d reached the brink. If John McCain has his way, we will. War is McCain’s Viagra and a microphone and podium his foreplay. There he was at the Munich Security Conference saying Putin isn’t interested in being the U.S.’s partner in negotiating Syrian peace. He needs muzzling. Frankly, I don’t know who or what to believe on Syria, except that U.S. fingerprints are all over the catastrophe.

Earlier today, I read a New York Times piece about the reemergence of George W, Bush to energize a lackluster Jeb with the Jeb! quest for what once was the-most-important-man-in-the-world position also available to women, and if you’re a member of the female gender you’ll roast in Hell if you don’t support the woman, even though the particular woman we women are supposed to champion has as much testosterone and a lust for war as, um, say McCain or George W. Bush, who’s defending his presidency after Trump ripped his record during the last Republican debate, saying Bush lied about WMD in Iraq: “There were none. And they knew there were none.”

George to the rescue. He left his oils and easel to bolster his brother and amid his hahaha self-deprecation, he delivered whoppers as huge as the ones he told to lead us into the War OF Terror.

Here’s what he said about the morning of 9/11 when Condoleezza Rice called and told him a plane had hit the pentagon:

I felt the first one was an accident, the second was an attack, and the third one was a declaration of war. I became something that no president should ever want to be—a wartime president.

What utter bullshit.

Bush entered office itching to be a wartime president and loaded his administration with a cast that supported toppling Saddam Hussein.

Gen. Wesley Clark said a general at the Pentagon told him (and later denied it) that George W. Bush’s agenda was “ . . . to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” This chat occurred approximately one month after 9/11.

Okay, I know the race to the WH is important. It must be. They spend a fortune on it and it’s almost never-ending. Yes, there’s a bit of a lull in the weeks prior to and right after the winner takes the oath of office, but soon the wannabes pitch their pandering and strut their egos—a raucous display of burlesque and worst in show.

Donald Trump, who once said if Ivanka weren’t his daughter “perhaps I’d be dating her,” is horrifying the establishment. Nothing he says is as creepy as Ted Cruz. Anything Ted Cruz. Sure, Donald’s a windbag but flying sans a bible, except for that 2 Corinthians flub at Liberty U. I agree with him on this: Cruz is nuts.

In South Carolina Trump wasn’t fiction-alizing when he said praising George Bush for what happened in the aftermath of 9/11 was like saying the opposing team scored 19 runs in the first inning, but after that we played pretty well. Reminds me of: “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, did you enjoy the play?” Still, Trump didn’t go far enough. He could’ve leveled serious accusations about the event that’s destroyed millions of lives and turned countries into wastelands.

There’s humor that would be thigh-slapping hilarious if the U.S. weren’t committing war crimes across the planet. Take Dick Cheney’s reaction to Trump’s takedown of George W. Bush. Cheney told Fox News’ Bret Baier that Trump’s doing a disservice to troops, those who served in the Middle East and highlighted that he, himself, was in a bunker after 9/11. You know, as IF that was dangerous and followed with, “I didn’t see Donald Trump there.” Pretty comical, huh? Especially from Mr. “Other Priorities”—five deferments during Viet Nam.

Bernie’s the new hope and change, despite being a D.C. insider for years, voting to fund war and he’s steadfast with droning and Saudi participation in further Syrian death. What a guy.

Anyone notice no one asks the candidates about Israel, the genocide of the Palestinian people. I’d watch a debate if it were devoted to this discussion.

Jeb tweeted a photo of his gun, a semiautomatic weapon, engraved with his name but which he calls America—a desperation maneuver that would be guffaw-able if that image didn’t symbolize the U.S.A.

Meanwhile, the wars rage on and too many Americans seem unconcerned, distracted—exactly what the decisions makers require as they profit from carnage.

Must admit here I’m worried about Kanye. Hope Mark Zuckerberg agrees to Kanye’s request and invests $1billion in his ideas.

Missy Comley Beattie has written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. She was an instructor of memoirs writing at Johns Hopkins’ Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Baltimore. Email: missybeat@gmail.com.