The Cold War 2.0

The BBC recently reported that Russia is starting up a series of military flights that haven't been around since the collapse of the Soviet Union they're calling these flights "Cold War patrols".

The Cold War is a textbook concept to me.

I was born in 1989. The Soviet Union offically collapsed in 1991.

I have never experienced utter fear of annihilation.

I've never watched brinksmanship in action.

But I have seen War Games.

So as I begin to see news headlines like the BBC's, I get worried. Cheesy 50's era films about hiding under tables and being suspicious of everyone comes to mind. I get nervous. I get antsy. Then I remember, in a brilliant moment of clarity, that one vital part of all this is missing.

Domino theory, the red scare, invasion of the body snatchers, whatever you want to call it, it isn't there anymore. There is no remaining specter of communism. There is no reason to fear.

Then, in an even greater moment of clarity, I realize, oh shit, there is.

Terror.

I fear terror. It's almost poetic in it's cyclicality. So this is when the chain reaction kind of happens, everything makes perfect sense, and I sink into a deep, deep, deep hole of sadness.

We're in an era of terror. Our civil liberties are being ignored to combat the invisible threat, to fight those who cannot be found, but we must do our part and be faithful too.

It's like the Cold War 2.0

So I ask that we take a moment and call this what it really is. It's the Perpetual War. There was no war in Afghanistan. There is no war in Iraq. They are merely campaigns in a far greater war. One that has no definitive end. One that has no victory. Slowly but surely our great nation can devolve into a police state. And every step of the way, the neo-cons and fundamentalists will ask us in that accusatory tone, "do you love our country or not??"

We stand at a vital moment in American History. In World History. Do we do what America has done so well, and hold ourselves accountable for our actions? Or is it finally the moment in which the rock solid façade of our constitution begins to crack?

Make the decision, people. And know that every time you don't, or every time you put it off, it counts as another point for those who are corrupting our country.

They're banking on our ignorance.

And it's working.