History is Point Of View, not Facts
is the New York Times headline this morning. And the answer is that certain things are acts of war, and Yes, the U.S. is at war with Iran.
"War" these days, though, has shrunk from releasing all out explosive force on the enemy to saving face by retaliating, exchanging punches and waiting for the other side to hit back; so, now we're waiting to see how Iran will hit us back. Their retaliation is not likely to be the all-devastating vengeance that the Iranian noisemakers threatened to scare us off in the first place. The fact is, though, that every American interest and every American person, is now a fair target.
Saudi Arabia, our pseudo-ally, condemned Israel for attacking Iran: will the Saudis now condemn the U.S.?
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Anyway: other facts of history include that if someone had taken out Hitler in the 1930s, twentieth century history would have been quite different, and so would the world today. We would still have had war with Japan, though.
Another fact of history: if North Korea's nuclear program had been taken out a generation ago, today's threat would be different.
So, as for the U.S. bombing Iran's nuclear program, we can have all the political, ethical, moral, and legal arguments we want, but only history will make the final judgment. History, of course, being written by whoever is writing it, usually but not necessarily the winner.
For instance, Heilsgeschichte: the OT is Jewish holy history about their relationship with YHWH their God, and its stories are written entirely from the Hebrew perspective. Allah and the Muslims have their own history, which does not include the Jews having rights to the Holy Land. France has theirs, the British Empire theirs; America ours so far, and our War with Iran isn't recorded yet for teaching in schools.
Are we doing evil, or greater good that only Time Will Tell?
Whoever is living in Victoryland a century from now will have the right answers.
One indisputable moral, ethical fact though is that there's a thread of typical bully cowardice for the U.S. to take on Iran when we don't dare take on Russia, a far greater evil.
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In yesterday's blogpost I wrote "the big man, who is actually an idiot." For clarity, I was talking about myself, not anyone else - - which didn't seem clear, so I removed the link on Facebook; but it's still on my +Time blog.
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Pictures: instead of so many nonsensical blogposts and FB links, I've taken to posting weather pictures on Facebook, because the weather from 7H porch can be spectacular. Immense storm clouds, for example. And a few years ago, watching and snapping pics as waterspouts formed in the Gulf just offshore.
Not to mention pics of the wonderful geometry puzzles and lessons that the scaffolding brought back to mind, the year or so after Hurricane Michael that it covered Harbour Village while repair work was done. I miss it, all the triangles, rectangles, and especially the trapezoids. I miss the scaffolding.
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Today is Monday, June 23. Wednesday, June 25 is our daughter Malinda's 67th birthday. Sunday, June 29 will be our 68th wedding anniversary.
Life is Good. Or, at least, life can be good, but we have to work at it, nomesane?
RSF&PTL
T89&c
pic: June 29, 1957, Linda and me driving away into our life together after our wedding reception. The car: a red 1957 Thunderbird with a white top. I think Walt snapped our picture!! So, 68 years: will we make 70 years? If we do, the gemstone is sapphire.