A LONG SWIM

 Yer Ol' Perfesser's Uncomfortable Morning Dose of Nasty, Imperial "Real-Politik":

When you're an empire, your warz NEVER end, and you don't WANT them to. They're what keep you strong.

Pax Americana, Pax Romana, Pax Britannica: They don't maintain themselves...It takes the expenditure of blood and treasure.

In fact, they're not even "wars." It's "warfare, the exercise of military instruments, SHORT of marshalling all resources to defeat an opponent. We conduct training exercises with live ammo and dead bad guys: military adventures at the frontiers.

These exercises perform several, vital, imperial functions: 1) they keep the MIC spinning busily along, using up both materiele and troops; 2) they keep our adversaries and our allies edgy and off-balance; 3) they keep the engines of commerce humming, and 4) they preent the "home front" with "heroes.

And THAT means invasions, counter-insurgencies, police actions, interventions, "peace-keepers," 'surges,' aerial sorties, huge flotillas of ships and planes, an all-volunteer army: all KINDS of things to keep an Empire afloat.

And, before you suggest: Let it sink!, consider how far and how long YOU/WE would have to swim to shore...