Deja vu all over again

Apparently suffering collective amnesia, we choose to relive 2003.  Here’s a memory refresh. WMD's, imminent threat, regime change, national security threats, lust for oil, no consideration of possible consequences and bluster, bluster, bluster, producing a 20 year war and never ending occupation. Just change one letter in the country name. 

And so we are now on the well on the way of repeating that debacle. History repeats. Idiocy. Our record in Mideast warfare does not bode well.

Seems like this calls for a review of moral values. To remind, such values are immutable. We don't get to make these up as we go along, especially if you are a person of faith. Fairness, justice, honesty, respect, integrity, compassion, kindness, courage for a start. A moral compass.  

So, a report card.

> When you and I were young Maggie, the US position was always that we do not start wars, we end them. No more. Undeclared wars are the rule. When you start a war on false pretenses while mediated negotiations are ongoing, your moral values are corrupt.

> When you are a signee of the Geneva Convention and then say "we will offer no quarter" or we will bomb "just for fun", your moral values are corrupt.

> When you stop seeing others as human and you accept killing civilians and bombing schools, your moral values are corrupt.

> When you treat war as entertainment, you have surrendered your humanity. War is not a video game.

> When you cause the rest of the world and our closest allies to hate us when we were once the most loved and respected country in the world, your moral values are corrupt. And when you request assistance, they turn you down. What goes around comes around.

> When you put money in Russia & Iran coffers by removing oil sanctions while eliminating funding for Ukraine, your moral values are corrupt. We are literally subsidizing our enemies war efforts. 

> When you impose sanctions on Cuba threatening 11 million people with starvation and then blockade aid shipments declaring 'I can do anything I want with Cuba', you have surrendered your humanity.

> When you give massive tax breaks to the obscenely wealthy and flippantly dismiss the economic struggles of the average person while gas prices soar and you say not to worry, "we will make a lot of money", your moral values are corrupt.

> When you claim you are called by God but reject even the most basic tenets of Christianity, your moral values are corrupt.

> When you use hatred and racism to demonize segments of the population, your moral values are corrupt.

> When you dismantle environmental rules and protections, risking the planet and compound that with an ecological catastrophe from bombing oil facilities, your moral values are corrupt.

> When you put the health of Americans in jeopardy by dismantling Medicare, CDC, medical research, international aid organizations and ACA subsidies surrendering any semblance of compassion, your moral values are corrupt.

> When you use the power of government to arrest and prosecute those you label as enemies, your moral values are corrupt. (Psychologists have a term for this behavior: DARVO: Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.)

> When you send masked, armed militia into our cities to terrorize the population, your moral values are corrupt.

> When you resort to win at any cost gerrymandering and voter suppression laws to ensure your candidates are elected, where a birth certificate is insufficient to prove a married woman's citizenship, your moral values are corrupt.

> When you have 34 felony convictions and your best friend was named Epstein, .. well, fill in the blanks.

It's time to start throwing tea into the harbor.

Copyright © 2026  Dave Hoplin