Intermittence

I understand that I cannot help but approach a literary work with preconceptions and biases no matter how I intend to read and comment in the absence of those forces, and that, due to the nature of my religious beliefs, any statements I make about that subject may be viewed with great suspicion.

All the same, I’ve been reading something which makes me want to write about religion, and so that’s what I’m going to do.

I ran across this earlier this morning. A great story, and a cool synopsis of Buddhism.

It resonates with me.

I’m away travelling, right now—as with all my other trips, I’ve returned to my motel from dinner and am consumed with a single thought, no matter how I try to distract or consume myself with television or work:

I despise being away from home.

It’s not just the material things—Donnell, office, bed, car—it’s the psychological things, as well. I’m currently almost totally disconnected from my life, saved by just two threads: my job, which is (as you know if you’ve ever asked me after a long day at work how my day was) not entirely fulfilling, and my phone, which does a lousy job of making me feel close to my lovely wife.

As a result, I’m lonely beyond reckoning. Only one thing will cure me, and stating what it is doesn’t make me feel weak or less manly. In fact, it strengthens me…buoys me.

What will make me feel better is walking into my home and being surrounded by the warm, loving embrace of my wife.

Tomorrow’s going to be a wonderful day.

The world changed in a profound way when the Berlin Wall fell, and the United States has had a rough time coming to grips with the new order. We need permanent bases in Japan and Germany (and other countries as well, if I’m not misunderstanding what’s meant by ‘permanent’) as much as we do in South American countries—which is, to say, not at all.

It’s not imperialism, but a form of economic protectionism, driven very much by domestic concerns instead of foreign ones. No politician in their right mind would pursue the correct course of action (closing bases, or converting them into multinational military installations) because if such a plan were enacted their constituents would suffer. Our wealth-based economy is based on the flow of money from person to person, and the military provides another route through which that money can flow.

Mutual self-defense, an idea which initially seems very attractive, isn’t really valid any longer. We hear stories more and more often of the damage that our military personnel inflict on host communities, and of the impact our very equipment has on their environs (such as the noise and air pollution around Kadena). With our military’s current ability to move with great speed anywhere in the world, I firmly believe that any projection-of-force benefits that are gained by maintaining permanent installations in other countries pales in comparison to the day-to-day negative impact on the people living around those installations.

No, we don’t need to be in those places in the way we currently are. The world’s gone through some drastic changes over the last 50 years, and I have a feeling that what we’ve seen is just the tip of the iceberg. Americans are resented the world over for appearing to force their worldview and politics on others, and maintaining permanent military presences in countries like Germany and Japan only add fuel to the fire.