i have taught several iranian students in my time, though i missed the time when, apparently, american schools had large numbers of them, and they were at war with each other. shortly after that, after the hostage crisis of the late seventies, they disappeared altogether, and that was when i went into teaching. but toward the end of my career, i had a few iranians. i liked them; they were nice people. i have no quarrel with iranians whatsoever.

what galls me about this unending series of wars is that they have stopped giving us any reasons altogether. we are still occupying afghanistan, but why? boys are dying, but why? it causes us billions a day, but why? and it's all done in my name. that's what galls me the most. if it was just a bunch of people going out to pick a fight, i'd say, go ahead, i don't have to get worked up about this. sometimes i've met people who pick fights for the pure joy of picking a fight, and winning, they hope, but what i've noticed is that nobody wins, ever. so i tend not to do this and if i had any power at all that's what i'd tell people: it's not good to do this, and it doesn't help anyone. but nobody's listening to me.

my friends the quakers have started an anti-war campaign. this is what they do the best. but in a sense i don't jump on that bandwagon either. it's almost like, you're opposed to every war, right? (yes) so of course you're opposed to this one. (yes) and yet i totally agree with them. i'm opposed to them all; i'm opposed to this one. in my lifetime there hasn't been a good war, or even a justifiable one. so the sum total of it is that i'm kind of numb. i'm aware that people will die. it may be some of my friends' children. i'm aware that it will sink this country further into the mire that it's dug for itself. but there really is no way out. being anti-war is something, yes, let them know we're opposed. of course we're opposed. but i'm also getting a little impatient. if people are dying, you should give us a reason. you should explain to us why this would be good for us. you should have an outcome in mind where things end up better than they are now, so that we can summon up some hope, or some reason that we can tell our kids, on their way out the door.

we in the west are all numb. we very rarely live with the consequences of the killing. we sit here, and nobody is dying around us, and we keep eating good food and we even have plenty of gas and oil. after a while i begin to think the news is the problem. i should stop watching the news. if they don't have anything good to say, or if it shows things that upset me or keep me up at night, i should just turn my back on the whole mess.

it's only a matter of time before some of these countries that we've alienated turn against us. what have we done for them? nothing. you look at a simple balance sheet and the usa is over here saying, it's all for us, it's us first, we get to kill whoever we want, we don't have to be nice to anyone.

and yes, that's the kind of world we live in. our beautiful peace is not going to last forever.