THE NEXT PHASE
A news report this morning said that American flag sales are way down and retailers are confident the bottom has dropped out of patriotism.
I've noticed also that flags pasted on highway overpasses have become ragged and are blowing away in fragments as the rushing traffic tatters them.
I think our swift orgy of patriotism is gone. And I think also that Americans may be unable to sustain any kind of patriotic fervor, at least the kind that has propelled us through other conflicts.
Perhaps all humankind is incapable of sustaining patriotic passion for any length of time. It might be that all men and women will quickly slide into the illusion that we are safe from attack because we are so powerful, so technologically perfect.
Americans have concluded the war in Afghanistan has been won and we are the victors. Osama Bin Laden has not been captured but reports say he may be dead or in Pakistan or even in a Paris hotel growing fat on French pastry. Anything is possible.
Who cares? America is strong, possibly more powerful than any other nation on the face of the earth. We are capable of winning any war.
Of course, that illusion could bring us to the brink. Today's war is not fought as it was decades ago with cannons and thousands of troops moving over the enemy. Now it is fought with cunning and stealth.
Now we are vulnerable because of our arrogance and self-righteousness. The enemy knows we are vulnerable because the entire world has seen our vanity and haughtiness.
I remember World War II and the billboard erected at the end of main street in my home town. Perhaps 150 names of fallen soldiers were inscribed there, dead and missing in action, all young men and women from our community.
But after the war the billboard fell into disrepair. Rather than being an exclamation point at the end of main street, it was now a rotting pile of memory. And one day the city fathers ordered it demolished. The tearing down was a visible sign the war was over and the citizens were safe once again.
With every military action since then we have climbed the patriotic mountain and then made a swift slide into self-righteousness.
God may wonder where the righteous nations are located. Are the powerful and wealthy nations always moving toward virtue? Or does our power and wealth ensure that we are always struggling with corruption?
In this war our bombs have utterly destroyed Afghanistan - turned buildings and homes into dust. The streets are covered with rubble. The air is thick with the smell of death.
The deepest values of our culture say Afghanistan, destroyed by our technology, must now be rebuilt with the world's wealth. The struggle is not between God-fearing nations and a god-less Afghanistan. Rather, it is an effort to build a righteous culture out of devastation. That's the next phase of this war.
Clark D. Morphew
Posted 1-23-02