My favorite song has long been John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
~ IMAGINE ~
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today, ah
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace, you
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world, you
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: John Winston Lennon
Imagine lyrics © Lenono Music
love this
Thank you. I’m praying for all the lives lost and in danger because of what the US has done. (And so far, without even being given a cogent reason for doing it.)
so much damage done for no reason
Certainly no reason that our “Peace President” can explain rationally. Nor can his aides. They all give different explanations for attacking another nation and plunging the entire Middle East into war. They didn’t even bother to make plans for evacuating Americans from the region. They just attacked.
and continue to –
Always one of my favorites and someday it might be possible.
Someday may be too late.
I’m a dreamer, too.
🙂
I argued with my sons last night, saying that the attack on Iran should have had Congress’ approval. No single individual should have the power to declare war. Just look at the examples, I said: Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, all blood and treasure down the drain. They were not convinced, and they trust DJT to do the right thing. I think he is capricious and unstable. There’s no denying the rulling mullahs needed to be taken out. Would a committee of 535 people ever agree on declaring war? I don’t know. Sons also raised a good point: war is a quicker thing than it used to be and an actual declaration would have given the enemy valuable early warning. I like Lennon’s vision of peace, even if naive. Humanity has a long way to go to outgrow its tribal nature.
What’s to argue? The Constitution requires permission from Congress to declare war. The discussion in Congress didn’t need to have been public and a tip-off to the enemy. Once permission/approval received, then the president can announce it exactly as he announced the “strike.” But apparently he believes “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission” (although he never seems to do either).
War is quicker now? Afghanistan ran about 20 years, ending in 2021.
Trump’s Iran “strike” immediately became “war” when Iran reacted by firing missiles at most of its neighbors, including, of course, those with US military bases, embassies, etc.
Given Trump’s track record, I despair if your sons are representative of their generation. Yes, the man is capricious and unstable — and that’s being extremely generous. Tell them to look back at his business history, his routine non-payment to contractors, his bankruptcies, his refusal to release his tax records as required when one runs for president, his birther campaign against Obama, his womanizing … and then on to everything he’s done as president. And look at him now, how he speaks, wanders, dozes, appears physically unwell. And January 6. How could they possibly justify or overlook that?
The song? Naive, sure. Simplistic. Wishful thinking. But we all like to dream sometimes. Or imagine.
D’oh. I came back to say something else and by the time I got to my computer, I’d forgotten what it was. Happens all too often these days. 🙁
By “war is quicker now” I meant the push-button and missile part, not the hard part, not the boots-on-the-ground part. 535 people can meet in secret to decide on war? I’ll believe it when I see it. Besides, shouldn’t such a question be subject to public debate? When does that end and the secret part start?
And what is war, now, anyway? Was Venezuela a war? Does a military conflict need explicit objectives to be declared a war? My sons are upright, good men and usually among the first to condemn any immoral or incompetent behavior, so how can they trust Trump? Beats me. When you can answer that, you will have solved the same puzzle about a third of the population.
Ah, that kind of quicker. It makes aggression and/or war so much easier. It makes starting a war just a knee jerk, spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. Scary.
Sure, Congress as a whole is not likely to pull off a secret meeting. But my point is still the same: The power to declare war is assigned to Congress, not the president. Admittedly that hasn’t happened since the beginning of WWII. I guess a 239-year-old document doesn’t carry much weight in the modern world. Technology marches on.
What is war? Opposing sides? Venezuela was one-sided, I’d say. Just a quick strike and capture and then out. Iran? Whatever Trump intended, it’s now a lot more than a simple strike on Iran. It’s a regional war. Did Trump really think he could just take out Khomeini and then leave while the Iranian people rose up and took over?
I don’t know how our sons could support Trump, and yet he was re-elected. (I honestly don’t know how my son voted and I’ve been afraid to ask him.) So my fallback position has become electing enough Dems to take control of Congress and restrain or remove Trump. And my fallback fallback position is trying to retain my sanity and survive this Trump presidency.