Cowboys and indians

Nothing much in the news. Obama apparently did once refer to "the war on al-qaeda," which generated considerable chatter but apparently has done not much else. What's more interesting to me is that the CIA or someone picked up five US citizens -- young male muslims -- who were trying to enlist in al-qaeda or some-such. One kid was asked if he thought it was wrong to do things like blow up high-rise office buildngs and murder 3,000 people who have nothing to do with your problems. The kid said something like, "It's not terrorism. It's jihad."

So apparently Osama bin Ladin now has attained a cult status similar to Batman or Spiderman. And he's inspiring ignorant and purposeless children to kill themselves and believe they're doing something fine and noble. Well, let's take a look at that.

Have you ever really lost your temper at some time and done something really stupid? Like, you're sitting in traffic, way back from the jam or the accident or whatever's holding everyone up. Out of frustration, you ram your car into the rear end of the guy in front of you, throw it into reverse, and charge full-bore into the car behind you. You keep ramming forward and reverse, forward and reverse, until one of the other drivers comes over and drags you out of your car and pounds the crap out of you. And your car is so messed up it's probably not worth repairing. Your insurance won't pay for it.

Now exactly what have you accomplished? You made a gigantic ass out of yourself, wrecked your own and other peoples' property, and will be paying the damages for a long time to come. And on the plus side? [Anyone? Anyone?]

Now exactly what has al-qaeda accomplished? I certainly wouldn't want the US Army coming after me with drones and night-flying helicopters equipped with heat-seeking missiles. And on the plus side?

The venerable Helen Thomas, White House reporter, asked Robert Gibbs, WH press secretary, why the islamo-terrorists are targeting the USA. Apparently Gibbs didn't have an answer. Much later, a commentator on Fox wondered where Helen has been for the last eight years.

But this whole thing kinda reminds me of cowboys and indians. There are few things sadder in the world than cultural wars. For example:  a small caravan of pioneers are moving across the plains in the 1840s to resettle somewhere in the West. They're passing through land that is, at this moment, controlled by the Sioux -- although the Sioux only took it over by running out the Black Feet, and the Sioux's control is constantly being challenged by the Cheyenne and the Pawnee. But the hapless pioneers don't know anything about this tribal business at all.

So, the pioneers left Missouri with about four head of cattle. One of their cows takes sick, and rather than hold up the whole caravan for however long it will take for the cow to recover, they leave the cow behind. They do their 10 or 12 miles for the day and set up camp on the Platte, near water, etc., where they can rest for a couple days. They send a 12-year-old kid back for the cow.

The kid goes back and can't find the cow. However, he does run into a Sioux indian, who says, "Oh, was that your cow? We thought you didn't want it, so we took it and slaughtered it and ate it for dinner last night. Maybe we could give you a pony or something to make up for it?"

Well... no. The kid's family wouldn't accept any apologies or retribution. As far as the pioneer was concerned, the Sioux were vicious and trying to kill all white people. The pioneer got up some kind of posse and tried to burn down the indian village, and the indians, of course, retaliated to the best of their ability -- which was considerable.

And this actually happened. And it set off a bloody slaughter and hostilities that continued for decades.

Then poor Black Kettle, who was a Cheyenne chieftain, I believe. He actually went to Washington with one delegation or another and was quite impressed by the permanent-looking civilization on the eastern side of the Mississippi. Heretofore, most indians regarded the pioneers as something like scouts for another tribe. I suppose in a way they were.

At any rate, Black Kettle just decided that indians could not win against the whites. He counseled his tribe to simply give up and go along. His tribe was attacked and massacred at Sand Creek, east of Denver, in the early days of the Civil War. Again, due to some kind of cattle disappearance or something like that, combined with the frustrated bravado of a butthead self-appointed militia colonel who wanted to be defending the Union somehow.

Black Kettle moved, at the behest and with the approval of the federal government, to a sort of tribal reserve on the Washita in what's Oklahoma now, I believe, or possibly Kansas. After the Civil War, Custer attacked and massacred Black Kettle's tribe there. This was because certain young men in the tribe refused to give up their tribal ways in the same way Black Kettle did, and they'd ride out periodically and burn down homesteads and murder settlers.

I'm not particularly taking the side of the indians. They gave back as good as they got. But don't you see, nobody wins? The story is just sad all the way around.

Destruction is not a very positive goal for anyone. Volunteering for martyrdom is not really a good or a very productive ideal.

Ever see "Bridge on the River Kwai"? Probably one of the best movies ever made. Toward the end, after William Holden has lead Jack Hawkins and a team of commandos into the jungle to blow up the bridge, Holden loses all patience with Hawkins' "death before dishonor" thing. Holden says something like: "All you talk about is how to die like a man, how to die with honor, how to die like a soldier. When the only thing that's really important is how to live like a human being."

So, anyway, you crazy islamo-terrorists, just keep on attacking. The more of you we kill, the fewer will be running at us tomorrow. This is not a war anyone wants, and believe me, we will wear you down. Because you see, we believe that we do have something to lose -- a positive reason for fighting -- even if you don't. That's a reason to live, not a reason to die. 

Or, as Patton said, "The objective is not to die for your country, but to get the enemy to die for his."

In a perfect world, I'd be a pacifist. But a perfect world does not exist.