Morning News

Morning News, Part I

First I read the New York Times:
“With the war entering its fourth week…”
reports of children, stranded wounded dead.
Inspiring charitable outrage.
Evoking superior altruism.
I sip hot coffee and wonder
how the carnage in Ukraine compares
to Iraq’s with the war entering its fourth year
or Afghanistan’s (or Vietnam’s) with the war entering its second decade?
We should compile not a graph, but a collection of children
stranded wounded dead
from everywhere.  Could we be then outraged
at every war?
Stop before it starts
any war?
Any war that threatens any child (of any color) is
not worth fighting.  You know this.
Everyone knows this.

Then I read Kenneth Rexroth:
“Eventually History
Distills all accumulated
Values but one.  Babies are
more durable than monuments…”

I sob, sip my coffee, and read on.

Morning News, Part II

“And 7000 Russian soldiers have died, according to U. S. estimates—
greater than the number of American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.”
What does this even mean?
Is war like golf and the low score wins?
And what are we measuring anyway?
The courage of people to face death or an efficacy of weaponry?
Who attacked a strong vs. weaker enemy?”
If it doesn’t make sense, but makes cents, does that make it even?

Morning News, Part III

“Biden called Putin a ‘war criminal.’”
Oh, Joe.  Aren’t we all?  Aren’t we all.

Morning News, Post Script

“Americans have rallied around U. S. support for Ukraine in a rare moment of unity.”
Yup.  It only took a war.
It always
takes
a war.