There’s tangents and rambles ahead. Sorry.

The whole discussion hinges on "better." My argument is that "better" precludes "always scornfully little" and "always scornfully little" is the general gist of these sorts of posts.

I think, from another angle, the problem is that these problems are so big and complex that looking at the whole picture keeps us from acknowledging the little details. Conversely, focusing on the little details often prevents us from acknowledging the whole picture.

I think we’re on the same page for the most part. This is how I see things, to the best of my understanding, from the information that has been given to me and how I recall it.

When Obama came into office, he found himself between a rock and a hard place. He inherited not one, but two major conflicts, Iraq and Afghanistan. Part of the reason they seemed to be dragging on so long is because neither one really seemed to have had an a clear and easily obtainable end goal. Both wars quickly became unpopular among certain groups here in America (including probably the majority of Democrats that voted for him) and both wars were starting to hurt our image on the international stage.

In regards to Iraq, before he left office President Bush was caving in to public pressure and was negotiating removing American soldiers from inside Iraq’s borders. This happened towards the end of his Presidency and the responsibility of seeing this through fell onto the shoulders of Obama. At the time, this is what a vocal group of Americans wanted. From what I understand, many people in the middle east were apprehensive about this idea, because they were worried that Iraq wasn’t ready for this yet and that removing troops would cause a power vacuum. Obama could either stick to our commitments of pulling our troops out and risk a power vacuum, leaving him open to scorn and criticism, or he could keep our troops there in hopes of keeping things stable, leaving him open to scorn and criticism. He’s damned if he did. Damned if he didn’t. I didn’t envy him that choice then and I don’t envy him that choice now. Shit, if I’m totally fucking honest, I’m upset about bombs and drone strikes. If he kept our troops there though, I’d be upset about loss of lives and men coming home with PTSD. When I stop to think about things, I’m not mad at Obama or anyone else. I’m mad about the wars. Since he’s a world leader though, sometimes I direct my anger at him. Is it fair? No. Is it human? Yes. Do I think voicing my anger and frustration and let it join in the chorus of other voices in some ways motivates our world leaders to try and find the best solutions possible? Well, that’s what I’m praying for.

So he brought home the troops, but there’s still conflicts over there. So now he has to resort to bombs and drone strikes, which bring up a whole slew of criticisms. Collateral damage is harder to control. It’s fuel for propaganda that makes us look bad and could potentially further extremism. It creates an image of us as trying to find a way to sanitize and depersonalize something that we should never try to sanitize and depersonalize because war is something very real, very ugly, and coming face to face with that is a powerful way to motivate us to try and find better methods for conflict resolution.

With things like Syria and ISIS, shit gets even messier because different people have different opinions as to which groups and ideologies we should put our trust in. Who do we give weapons to? Who do we give financial aid to? Whose ideas do we support on the world stage? Who can we trust to rebuild the region when all of the smoke clears? What can we do to prevent violent flare ups in the future? I’m sure if you took representatives from America, Russia, Syria, Iraq, ISIS, and whoever else feels like they have a dog in this fight, and put them all in a room, there’d be more disagreeing than agreeing.

It’s a mess. It’s a nightmare.

While the switch from US troops on the ground to airstrikes and special forces has saved US lives, untold numbers of foreign lives have been snuffed out. We have no idea how many civilians have been killed in the massive bombings in Iraq and Syria, where the US military is often pursuing Isis in the middle of urban neighborhoods. We only sporadically hear about civilian killings in Afghanistan, such as the tragic bombing of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz that left 42 dead and 37 wounded.

This whole quote goes back to the damned it you do, damned if you don’t burden of war. I don’t want anyone dead. Soldier. Civilian. Ours. Theirs. No matter what happens, there’s going to be plenty of blame to go around, because people are dead and that’s completely and totally unacceptable. The true damage of these losses run immeasurably deep. I think it’s important to hold onto that ideal to help motivate our leaders to make the best choices possible, but I think it’s also important to accept that our leaders are also making some very, very difficult choices that no one really wants to make.

This is a strident woman demanding the President apologize to a Pakistani family that testified before Congress about drone strikes. You think that shit happened in Vietnam?

I think part of the reason she was able to have that conversation with Congress and that we are able to have this conversation now is because of Vietnam.

It is to the best of my understanding that Vietnam was a complete and utter shit show for everyone involved. It’s also to the best of my understanding that thanks to magazines and television and reporters, normal every day people got to see the true face of war from the safety of their own homes for the first time ever. I think that information being readily available was a huge turning point for us as a country. I also sometimes worry that in comparison to Vietnam, the media coverage of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria is overly sanitized.

I don’t know how heavily people protested to World War One, Two, and the Korean War. I assume it’s much less than Vietnam in comparison. I have some idea of how much people protested Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. I worry that it’s also much less than Vietnam in comparison. I don’t think I know enough to make comparisons between all of them and come out with an answer as to why.

There is an overwhelming sense of unfairness and cruelty to all of this. I constantly worry that cruelest thing of all, is that as a collective whole there aren’t enough people feeling that same sense of unfairness and cruelty that I feel. I think if they did, our conversations would be louder, more frequent, and much, much deeper.