A celebrated basketball star, Dennis Rodman, decides to pay Kim Jong Un a visit. Mr. Rodman’s decision is spurred by his conviction that his and Kim Jong Un’s mutual love for basketball can be the basis for easing tensions between North Korea and the United States. Kim tells Dennis, “Tell your president to give me a ring.” The art of diplomacy reduced to two Comic Book Men.
Soldiers on leave during the Vietnam War avoided wearing their uniforms in public because of disapproval of the soldiers displayed by American civilians. When the soldiers returned after having served in that war, they were coldly received in public, and often greeted with hostility. More recently, mobs gather at graveyard sites where family members mourn and bury the dead of current wars. The mobs carry placards, “The only good soldier, is a dead soldier.”
Not much has changed in Academia, Hollywood, and the Media, citadels of public opinion. Universities denigrate the military. Movies are obsessed with depictions of evil American military leaders. And the media? Not exactly a supporter of our military. Organizations like Paralyzed Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans, Wounded Warrior Project, and others beg for funds to help our veterans and their families. The media is indifferently silent about this American tragedy.
Shiites are at war with Sunnis; Shiites and Sunnis are at war with Christians and Jews; the repressive Syrian government is openly slaughtering rebels, many of whom may or may not be as bad (if not worse) than the government against whom they’re rebelling; most of the Middle East is at war with Western Civilization.
The sex and drug trades are proliferating; so are nuclear weapons; Mexican drug gangs torture, slaughter, and cut throats of children to terrorize families that get out of line; Europe is disintegrating; the Middle-East ominously simmers and flairs; Sharia Law is spreading; Hezbollah, al-Quaeda, and other terrorist groups wage borderless global wars; embassies are attacked; the ghost of the Domino Theory is back to threaten us—this time, not only in Asia, but globally. South and Central America are immersed in a Pink Tide; Africa is dying; Muslim terrorists are called ‘freedom fighters’; acts of terror are being called ‘man made disasters’; the North Korean military is thirsting for war; its armaments are paraded in the streets, a flashback to Nazi Germany; marching North Korean soldiers are a grim flashback to 1939.
And, Kim Jung Un is waiting for a phone call from President Obama.
Reflections and commentaries by the other Mario Martone 