I understand the military mind rather well. You embox yourself so much so within a system that eventually all the pieces, no matter how remote from one another, seem inextricably linked and totally dependent upon the other. Perhaps the military structure can be easily described as the false belief that one item that is like the other and next to the other, will always be affected by the other.
Reality, oftentimes, is not a neatly organized row of dominoes waiting to all collapse one after the other. However, reality can often be militaristic; and militarism is a neatly organized chain of blood waiting to collapse in unison. It is precisely that militaristic, all-causational view of life that has been behind America's history of military engagements.
We all learned about the domino theory of communism as it pertained to the Vietnam war. We were taught in school that the reason why the US was so afraid of communist domination in Vietnam was because everyone feared that if one South East Asian country fell to communism, then the others would follow along.
In the end, millions suffered, and the Pentagon's paranoid justification for military adventurism was all but forgiven and forgotten by the American people. And it is because of that amnesia that we have now replaced the word "communism" with "Al-Qaeda'' in our political and military thought.
Eric Holder, the nation's top lawyer, now describes Al-Qaeda as a ''franchise'' that, like McDonald's, threatens to usurp the typical American soup for its own bitter idea of what is good. And sure, you could argue that McDonald's doesn't want to shove soup down our throats, but considering how the American media is always quick to highlight the presence of the Golden Arches in a newly "liberated" land as a sign or progress and freedom, we could argue that Al-Qaeda is the new communism: seeking to deprive their populations of the freedom to enjoy American franchises. There's still no Coca-Cola in North Korea, and if Al-Qaeda has its way, the whole Islamic world will be the same. Like one after the other, the Islamic nations of the world will be incapable of asserting their love for America's franchises, forcing us to send our military to help them.
We can already begin to predict what school books will teach kids in 50 years: ''The war on terror was fought because everyone feared that Al-Qaeda would set up franchises in every country.''
