AS HERCULES SLEEPS

I can imagine Hercules the strongest man of Greek and Roman mythology.  He was hero of superhuman strength and courage who performed twelve immense tasks or “labors” imposed on him and who after death was ranked among the gods.  I wonder how mythology would have treated that myth had it been about a man equipped and able to perform but decided to take a nap instead.

That weird thought jumped into my mind as I watched thousands of Syrian inhabitants of Aleppo trying to escape the horrors of war that has seen some half a million of their countrymen killed.  I cannot help but think that the Hercules of countries, the U.S.A., slept through their responsibility to mankind.  Our nation’s leader, so called leader of the free world, has abdicated our responsibility.  His theme of leading from behind is not a rally call to achieve victory over those inflicting the plague of war.  The Obama doctrine has been to defer, defer, defer. 

Once the protector of lives, and societies our nation was forced into a slumber which allowed evil to inflict racial, and religious eradication upon entire groups of the populations.  We were once such a power in the world that no country would chance a confrontation.  We existed as a force of peace through power and our resolve not to let another holocaust occur. Much like the biggest kid in school we had the choice of being the schoolyard bully or the guy that protected the unpopular nerd.

I keep hearing our intelligentsia spouting the rhetoric supporting the Obama doctrine.  America has no stomach for war.  To my way of thinking, that is not entirely true.  We also do not have a desire to watch our sons, daughters, friends, die in a war that was never conducted with the intention of winning.  Containment is not a strategy that inhibits bad behavior.

 As our country brought WWII to a horrifying end with the use of the atomic bomb the world was dramatically aware of a change in world dynamics.  There was an entity capable of causing death on a large scale and no country wanted to test our resolve in its use.  There were a few that decided they could equal that power but to use it would be the cause for mutual destruction.  That prevented all from the utilization of the weapon.  That was the positive effect, there has also been a negative effect upon our own society.  We struggled with the mental images of the destruction and death caused by our dominance of weaponry.

We were no longer proud of the fact that we had ended the war of centuries, the end that actually saved millions of Japanese and American lives, we gradually replaced that pride with shame.  That shame has cost the United States and the world innumerable lives and countless wealth as we no longer fought to end the conflict but fought instead to maintain a moral standard.  This exercise has extended every conflict we have engaged in since that time.  The Viet Nam protests shouted the disdain and the revulsion of war as a means of stopping the advancement of Marxism even though most regarded Communism as a dangerous enemy.  The Communists on the other had used this abhorrence of war to enact a subtle but effective campaign, that of infiltrating those who entertain and those who teach our children.  This has proven more effective in changing our country and our society than any other method since our country’s birth.  Woe is to us if we continue to hide our heads in the sand.

This blight has produced the political climate which has caused the abdication of responsibility towards our fellow man.  Our use of the false belief of refusing to take a substantial active part we have a kinder gentler nature than the rest of the world.  Strutting about on our high horse, while millions are being killed and maimed is truly shameful.  This taking place because we failed to act to the best of our capabilities.  History if there is to be any future for us will see us not as leading mankind to a better world, but as traitors to mans existence.

We were as capable as Hercules, but we slept.

Pray for our country, the world, and love your neighbor.

God bless the USA