Sure, we've had Indian uprisings and Mexican bandido raids, sabotage and civil unrest, Pearl Harbor and 9/11. But a major war lasting years with vast destruction of homes, cities and farms and civilians and their property is something no American alive today can even imagine. And we've never had to rebuild after one of those holocausts, either. We send our legions overseas, and they fight and die far away, but we only see it on TV and movies, comic books and war toys. It becomes like a game, a myth. The boys that do come home with their thousand-yard stares usually don't want to talk about it.

We must never be afraid to fight and we must always be ready to do so. But it is not glorious, it is not an adventure, it is not something we do to "teach them a lesson" or to "sort them out". This is why little patriotic exhibitions like the video you pointed us to infuriate me. They are deliberately designed to make us ready to go, to want to go, and if we question that we must therefore be traitors or cowards. That is a filthy lie. War is not about national honor, or love of country, or the flag or god; its more like surgery without anesthetics, pulling out an abscessed tooth with a pair of pliers or an improvised amputation as a cure for snakebite. It may be about freedom, at least, that's usually the reason both sides give for fighting. No, you do it because there is no other alternative.

War should not be an orgasm of smug patriotic righteousness we can unleash on our enemies whenever they insult us. It should be done only when there is no other choice. We have no assurance of victory, and even if we do win, it will be awful for those who have to go and do it, even if they survive it. And it never quite turns out the way we expect it to.