I grew up in the 80’s. Yep. The big hair decade. Say what you want about it, laugh if you must. I know I do when I look back at some of the pictures. But one thing you gotta give the 80’s…. we had GREAT music. Ok, if you ignore that whole “Come On Eileen” debacle. Hell, I could write a whole post just on that!
In search of music on my laptop, I tripped over Sting singing “Russians”.
WOW!
I remember that part of the 80’s very well. The Americans, and by extension, the western world, staring into the abyss with the Soviets. Both sides convinced they were right, that the other side was wrong. Not just wrong, but ‘Evil’. Ronald Reagan even once referred to the U.S.S.R as the “Evil Empire”. All the while both sides built more planes, and tanks, and guns, and missles. Always with those damned missles! Enough to kill every living thing in the world 100 times over! I remember the tensions running high when Poland declared martial law, when the U.S.S.R shot down Korean Air Lines flight 007, when the Americans insisted on deploying the Pershing II missles in West Germany.
Through it all, our leaders more or less kept their cool. Rhetoric was one thing, live ammunition was quite another. They fought their proxy wars around the globe, in South East Asia, Korea, most of Africa and later the Middle East. One of their little ‘bush fire’ wars stills haunts us today.
In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Never mind why they did it, because in the broder historical context it just doesn’t matter. Because they did it, the U.S got involved in supplying arms to the rebels who fought the incading Soviets. One of those rebels was Osama Bin laden. Does anyone see the connection yet? Because of something done over 30 years ago, we now subject ourselves to full body scans and pat downs at the airport. The Americans have been fighting in Afghanistan for over ten years now, far longer than the Soviets did. There is no end date. The “war on terror’ is the bastard son of the Cold War.
But back to the music of the 80’s. That was the good stuff. New Wave. David Bowie. Michael Jackson. Heavy metal. It was all good. Just writing this takes me back to how awesome that music was! Of course, we had to listen to it on ‘boom boxes’ that, in some cases, required small wagons to kart them around on and devoured ‘D’ batteries like an Anteater on a feast, but we never complained. The MP-3 player was long off.
So this afternoon I tripped over one of those old 80’s songs. “Russians” by Sting. It is from his debut solo album, released in 1985. I remember getting into a big arguement with my Mom (a conservative that would have made Ronnie look like FDR) about this song. She maintained that it was too pacifist, and thank God that the Americans were nsaving us all from having to learn to speak Russian. I for my part, at the oh so smart age of 17, tried to convince my mother that the Soviets took the position they did after World War II because they had been invaded by Germany twice in less than a quarter of a century, and they wanted space between themselves and any potential aggressor in the future.
Both of our positions were over simplified, to say the least. But I digress….
The song, as sung by Sting, is so very simple in nature. The whole premise being, that inspite of this bzarre standoff between the east and the west, it all comes down to one simple fact: the Russians love THEIR children too!
So now it is the year 2012, and everything old is new again. For years, politicians in the U.S have been urging outright armed conflict with Iran in order to prevent them from developing a nuclear weapon. Forget the fact that the Iranians seem to be proceeding at a snails pace. It is no secret how to make a bomb. The recipe is well known. But they do seem to be determined to have one, and there are those in the west who are equally determined to stop this at all costs.
That term, at ALL costs, should never be taken lightly. America can not afford the war it is in now, let alone one with Iran. Their economy has still not recovered from the banking debacle of 2008, and surely could not survive the tremendous shock to oil prices that would be an immediate result of war with Iran. the war would be a long one, and a costly one. Unlike the Afghans or the Iraqis, the Iranians have a much larger capicity to bring that war to Americas shores, something which I really do not think they have thought threw.
In the Cold War, we always had the common sense to step back from the abyss. We need that common sense again, we need to talk, and talk, and talk. We need to stop this before the drums of war overpower the too few voices of reason left out there.
In Europe and America, there’s a growing feeling of hysteria
Conditioned to respond to all the threats
In the rhetorical speeches of the Iranians
Mr. Ahmadinejad said we will bury you
I don’t subscribe to this point of view
It would be such an ignorant thing to do
If the Iranians love their children too
How can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer’s deadly toy
There is no monopoly in common sense
On either side of the political fence
We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Iranians love their children too
There is no historical precedent
To put the words in the mouth of the wanna be President
There’s no such thing as a winnable war
It’s a lie we don’t believe anymore
Mr. Romney says we will protect you
I don’t subscribe to this point of view
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Iranians love their children too
We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
What might save us, me, and you
Is if the Iranians love their children too
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