Picking our favorite wars.

Henry Kissinger said this, according to William F. Buckley • Snopes HERE

Today, people across the globe are revisiting (politically speaking) the grave of Henry Kissinger, the deeply hated national security advisor and Secretary of State during the Vietnam war, a colossal mistaken war of choice.

Why is it so hard for us to believe we're here again? Short term memory loss? How about our own refusal to face our own failure to get us out of the two-party doom loop?

On Saturday, I watched two important talks. One was by John Mearsheimer on Prof. Glenn Diesen's show excerpted HERE. (Incredible hour version HERE.) I also watched Bernie Sanders' speech at the No Kings rally in St. Paul, MN HERE. John Mearsheimer is always a surprise, though I wouldn’t call it a pleasant one. He says Iran’s refusal to agree to Donald Trump’s “15-point demands”* indicates that Iran believes it holds the cards. He thinks they do as well, stating, “Trump is trapped in his own war of choice,” just as our $39T debt spiral is setting in. The Pentagon failed its eighth audit in December 2025, on the heels of U.S. spending $188B on the war in Ukraine. Remember that war of choice -- Ukraine -- by the previous administration? If Trump carries through on his threats, he says, "it will take the world economy off a cliff." Welcome to the two-party doom loop.

What Bernie did say in St. Paul is what's most important.

Bernie is rarely a surprise, though we appreciate him as the most independent and consistent of the Democrats. About 22 minutes into his speech, he talks about how progressives, moderates and conservatives are united against the war with Iran. True! But, he fails to take it to the independent mat.

Let's imagine for a moment if Bernie said something like this: "The Democratic Party has been mistaken by continuing to wage a strictly partisan war against the Republicans in its sole pursuit of political power. Sure, Trump is a big problem and everyone now knows this. But are the Democrats willing to lead the world in the pursuit of peace and diplomacy and how would we do that given our own hypocrisy and warmongering in Ukraine? We must stop picking our favorite wars, sorry."

No, he did not say this. But, I would have given my eye teeth to see the response from the 10,000 people in that crowd.

Let's talk about what we in America can do to get us out of the madness of picking our favorate wars.