Angry Boys-Part I

Anger is like a fire. Great care must be taken to keep it contained from becoming a conflagration, consuming the world. 

Last night, in my hotel room down in Davis, West Virginia, I was watching CNN. It wasn't the 24-7 News Cycle programming but instead the CNN channel was showing documentaries.

The first was of how the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, didn't fight by the war that we wanted to fight. Instead, they would attack and run, often hiding in elaborately dug tunnels underground. The U.S., when it had the opportunity to see the enemy and engage, inflicted heavy losses, like during the Tet Offensive. The U.S. military leaders were driven mad, and I am sure as were the ordinary U.S. soldiers, by the "now you see them, now you don't strategy." Never sure when an attack would come, then it would. And the attackers would disappear into the jungle. You can't usually hit what you cannot see, which explains why the U.S. military dropped so many bombs and deforestation agents. And not just in Vietnam, but also in Cambodia and Laos which were used as safe havens for the enemy. I could see the anger and despair in both the U.S. civilian and military leadership. No matter how many of the enemy that were killed, they kept coming back.

The second documentary was the Fall of Paris to Hitler and the Nazis/German Army in World War II. Hitler, ever since the Treaty of Versailles, had the deepest animosity imaginable for the French and the harsh terms of the Armistice. Technically, WW I was a draw but German came out the loser, through the terms of the Armistice, and particularly the insistence of the French that Germans be humiliated by the harsh terms. It was. Apparently, upon the surrender of the French, Hitler sat in the same chair in the same location as where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to essentially make the French now accept his terms. He turned the table.

After Hitler settled that score he looked to the East. Up until that point, his actions has been explained through the lens of Germany seeking to right historical injustices, and many in the West agreed. They knew that Germany had gotten a raw deal in WWI. And in that milieu, Hitler envisioned the thousand year Reich. When, he invaded Poland, a non-Germanic state, it was clear that he had gone on the offensive and it wasn't about righting past wrongs but creating new ones.     

In both documentaries, I saw how anger on the personal level can become national and vice-versa. And in seeking to exert rights and one's will, the damage can become incalculable to envision from the outset. Parties in war never plan for it to drag on. Too far in to stop, but no end in sight. The Americans thought we could bomb the enemy into submission. Hitler thought that Germany would never be under anyone else's boot ever again. So, the wars ground on, proving yet again, that he who lives by the sword dies by it. Seeking to right wrongs is surely one path to evil. That is what made the American Revolution so atypical, although the Civil War was when the bill came due for the wrongdoing and in one sense, with Red and Blue States, the Civil War continues.     

There was an interruption in the schedule programming after midnight for a news break about the shooting in California at the Garlic Festival. The police responded quickly and had shot the assailant within a minute. Several were killed including the gunman and another 16 were wounded. By a young man with an assault rifle that he had bought legally in Nevada several weeks ago. If there was a type of shooter, this man fit it. He was young (19), appears to have held some far-Right racist ideology,  and a male. That is 95% of the shooters in mass killings here. Someone apparently screamed at him while he was shooting. He reportedly said, "I am angry."  That is rather obvious.   

I may return to this topic in another blog. I have more to say and write but I think this is enough for now.