Ho-hum, another war

As if our military were not spread thin enough, we are now committed to another war, democrat-style (meaning no ground troops or much risk at all of casualties – war on the ‘safe,’ for our side, anyway).   CatholicVote has an article noting that the same catholics who have been absolutely apopletic about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are either silent on this latest involvement in Libya, or are openly in support of it.   There is some delicious schadenfraude in that, and if that wasn’t tending towards sin I’d be enjoying it more. 

I’m thinking this latest little war is a bad idea for a whole host of reasons.  After 9/11, I was very much in favor of the campaigns in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  Years of experience and the apparent impossibility of pacifying those regions have made me much more skeptical.  And, I was alot less of a practicing, faithful Catholic back then.  Given our severe economic problems and the fact that our military is using up ancient equipment that is falling apart, for the most part, I’d rather we try a serious period of retrenchment, rather than get involved in yet another conflict that is entirely internal and attempt to ram through democracy in a part of the world where the people seem to have a psychological inability to have open, stable government.  That effort looks alot like political imperialism, and while I don’t buy the myth of the “arab street,” I don’t think it’s going to win us many friends, either. 

I do want to keep Al Queda and other terrorist organizations suppressed, and I think the effort in Afghanistan has been reasonable in that regard.  I think Iraq was begun with good motives but was horribly executed and almost became a quagmire, but is reasonably settled, for now.  But I don’t see the need to become involved in yet another civil war, picking sides and deciding who the “good guys” are, when we barely even know who, if anyone, their leaders are, what their goals are, or what the end game is.  I can do without this one.  And who knows how many will die as a result of this action – or maybe fewer will die, who knows?  But I’m getting worn out with war – I’m only 39, but over the last 22 years this is the 9th major engagement the US has been involved in, not counting a whole bunch of smaller ones.  How about a break?