Dear George,
At the apogee of a society’s ascent is where you will find the seeds of its decline. Our apogee was our victory in World War II, which marked a seismic shift in the American way. Prior to the war, America had mistrusted a large standing army as a potential threat to her liberties. This left us weak, and inhibited our growth as a world power. Thankfully, all of that changed at the end of World War II. The war was so total and so complex that it spawned a martial momentum so powerful we were unable to stop it. Our leaders now saw the world as an arena for conflict. All they needed was a figurehead that would personify evil. We found it in Josef Stalin. Thanks to him, the mindset that had won a war became an ingrained habit as we grew into a nuclearized security state.
War demands a society that is a unitary whole, a collective in which deviance is equated with subversion. However, such a mentality is difficult to maintain. The passion that fires this unity wanes with each passing generation. The Soviets served us for about twenty years before our martial unity yielded to the disorder of the sixties. The only thing that saved the nation was a new threat and a new war: The War on Crime. The Black criminal replaced the Commie as the resident threat. But, even that got old after a while.
Then came our salvation, 9/11, and the Endless War of the Empty Policy.
You see, George, a martial mentality demands that we abandon that terrible age when the Demon of Decency strode over the land, abolishing the death sentence, feeding the children, healing the sick, and constructing a safety net beneath which no member of society would be able to fall. It was Johnson’s attempt to be both martial and decent that nearly destroyed us as a country. Starting with Ronnie, we have excised the Demon until he is no more.
It is a historical truth that no empire worth its salt goes bankrupt funding social programs; it goes bankrupt fighting the good fight. And bankrupt we shall become because our leaders cling to the belief that war is a chess game. They have yet to realize that the lowly pawn now carries a Kalashnikov and moves with the impunity of a queen. Not only that, the pawn leaves the board, hides behind the game box and blows away the enemy’s king and queen before slipping into the darkness.
It’s a wonderful time to be alive, George. Nothing stimulates like madness.
Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones
9:07:58 PM 
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