Hi ho!

Foner’s coverage of the Selective Service Act passed in May 1917, is brief. He simply states that due to the passage of the Act the number of men in the army went from 120,000 to 5 million. He also informs readers that the Act resulted in about 24 million men enlisting. However, the bigger picture in all this is what Foner speaks in great detail about. Foner wrote that the war seemed to bring about the being of a ‘new nationalist state’ in the country. Federal government agencies seemed to be controlling everything from- food margins and transportation to fuel. Food was rationalized because many sought to believe that food will help win the war. If they kept their soldiers full, they would surely have enough strength to win the war. Everyone in the country was focused on doing what they could to help the U.S. win the war. Nevertheless, the biggest difference between the Selective Service Act of 1917 and other previously written acts was that a substitute could no longer be hired to fight in a man’s place, the man himself would now have to enlist.

The manifestation of fear of Trump’s presidency has always been from the outset having an idiot at the helm. Recent international developments have shown that the exemplification of narcissism is brutality. This goes far beyond a deep-seated inferiority complex, a clinical generosity. He was best described by Rex Tillerson as a “fucking moron”. Trump has throughout his presidency illustrated his native and only bent for violence – whether towards women (grabbing them by the pussy – which even for locker room bravado is peculiarly aggressive), extraordinarily nasty name calling of political opponents or other world leaders or his undemocratic attacks upon public media and those voicing any opinion contrary to his own.

It requires only the most basic lesson in international affairs and diplomacy to recognize that disagreement with Iran goes back many years and may well be the product of American hostilities to preserve its connections with the oil fields at a time when its supplies were foreseeably limited to the Middle East. To presume to overcome in an instant the hatred of American support of totalitarian government there for its own self-interest at the expense of the democratic freedom of an entire population is nothing short of ill-conceived and evidently dangerous to a fault.

Given Trump’s proven shallowness it is sadly very likely that Elizabeth Warren was correct when she opined that Trump took his murderous tact in killing the Iranian leader only as an attempt to divert attention from impeachment. It has had just the opposite affect – especially following the counter-attacks against an American airbase in Iraq. Americans – and people across the world – do not share Trump’s empty appetite for war. It requires little intelligence to acknowledge that , yes, there are maniacs in high places, but that killing them is not the answer; not only because they will only be replaced but because in this small planet the option of trying to talk to others to settle differences is – like it or not – the adult way of doing things.

The other very real possibility when analyzing Trump is his destructive connection with Russia. In particular Russia’s not unrelated need to secure access of its own to oil for economic purposes and necessity. The Trump alliance with Russia is a strategic accident that has never been fully explained least of all by Trump himself other than his stock dismissal of the alliance and his standard categorical denial. This subservience to Russian would further afford him at least the small compliment of survival on the larger political front. Again however the motive is strictly selfish and far removed from anything advancing either American much less international benefit.

Finally no one in their right mind in a so-called democratic nation can possibly imagine that involving the citizens of any country in warfare is a clever choice. The days of “Mine is Bigger than Yours” have long ago passed. Americans have already witnessed the indescribable fear of terrorism. They don’t need to see the consequences of a nuclear war to get the full picture.

It’s time thinking Americans take hold of their destiny and dispel the childish pouting and tolerance of the brutal behaviour of those who purport to lead. Getting even is not winning!