Dropping one of the Big Ones
Moab has been in the news. Not the Moab in the Bible. No, this is the MOAB, the so-called "mother of all bombs" which was used on ISIS. This is the largest bomb the United States has next to a nuclear weapon, and it has never been used before.
It has showed up in movies from time to time. Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman had one, or an equivalent, that was dropped to try and stop a virus from spreading.
This, however, was no movie.
Please don't think that I am going to suggest that we loosen up our attack against ISIS. That's not my point at all.
My point is this: we have dropped a never-before-used bomb in our perpetual conflict with ISIS and extremism, but we don't seem to care. It was mentioned in the news some, but not too much, nor was the power of this bomb talked about. In some ways, it seems to have been written off as just a really big bomb.
There is some question about the timing of the bomb being used as a warning to North Korea. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Even if it wasn't intended as a warning shot, it cannot fail to be taken as such. And perhaps one of the reasons that it didn't get much play in the news is because this bomb drop had been planned back in the Obama administration and we don't want to bring him up too much anymore.
What troubles me about the use of this bomb is that there seems to be little concern for the magnitude of this weapon nor does there seem to be any real discussion about the blithe usage of such a powerful weapon with regards to the military or the population of the country that used it. But that seems to be the tenor of the country right now anyway. We just don't seem to be taking things to seriously.
That could come from the fact that we might all be fatigued by the constant hammering of news, fake news, accusations, concerns, and the renewed threat of nuclear war with North Korea. But even that doesn't seem to be taking hold of our concerns. We seem to be more concerned with escapism than honest debate (which is different from name calling).
When the Death Star fired part of its laser in Rogue One, it made a tremendous impact on all involved. The MOAB should have done that as well. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have the lasting effect that the nuclear blasts of WWII had in our collective thinking. Granted, the bomb has a different kind of blast and a different kind of residual effect.
Still, we have dropped "the big one" as Sid from Toy Story might have said with delight. Ok or oh well, we seemed to have moved on a little too quickly.
It has showed up in movies from time to time. Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman had one, or an equivalent, that was dropped to try and stop a virus from spreading.
This, however, was no movie.
Please don't think that I am going to suggest that we loosen up our attack against ISIS. That's not my point at all.
My point is this: we have dropped a never-before-used bomb in our perpetual conflict with ISIS and extremism, but we don't seem to care. It was mentioned in the news some, but not too much, nor was the power of this bomb talked about. In some ways, it seems to have been written off as just a really big bomb.
There is some question about the timing of the bomb being used as a warning to North Korea. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Even if it wasn't intended as a warning shot, it cannot fail to be taken as such. And perhaps one of the reasons that it didn't get much play in the news is because this bomb drop had been planned back in the Obama administration and we don't want to bring him up too much anymore.
What troubles me about the use of this bomb is that there seems to be little concern for the magnitude of this weapon nor does there seem to be any real discussion about the blithe usage of such a powerful weapon with regards to the military or the population of the country that used it. But that seems to be the tenor of the country right now anyway. We just don't seem to be taking things to seriously.
That could come from the fact that we might all be fatigued by the constant hammering of news, fake news, accusations, concerns, and the renewed threat of nuclear war with North Korea. But even that doesn't seem to be taking hold of our concerns. We seem to be more concerned with escapism than honest debate (which is different from name calling).
When the Death Star fired part of its laser in Rogue One, it made a tremendous impact on all involved. The MOAB should have done that as well. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have the lasting effect that the nuclear blasts of WWII had in our collective thinking. Granted, the bomb has a different kind of blast and a different kind of residual effect.
Still, we have dropped "the big one" as Sid from Toy Story might have said with delight. Ok or oh well, we seemed to have moved on a little too quickly.
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