Mashed Friends

I totally love summertime - except for one thing. All my favorite shows are in reruns. I've written about this before - one summer I spent watching "How do they do it?" type shows and great science exploration shows like "Through the Wormhole" - canceled. Last year I had just purchased my new 3D TV and enjoyed a variety of 3D programming on DirecTV - which they have since stopped updating. So this year I'm watching a couple of old shows along with a couple of new somewhat entertaining original sitcoms on TV Land. My favorite 2 older shows I'm watching right now are M.A.S.H. and Friends. M.A.S.H. is just as relevant today as it was way back then and Friends is just as irrelevant now as when it first aired - but still entertaining. I want to briefly focus on M.A.S.H.

I find myself going to bed each night thinking about how destructive war is with very few if any real benefits. M.A.S.H. is set in the Korean war - one of many we should never have been involved in. The writing for the show is brilliant - somehow making light of a terrible situation. It makes you chuckle and yet leaves you thinking about the sad reality of war and the people who are killed and wounded - along with the families and loved ones they leave behind. The show eloquently points out how we as foreigners or even invaders of another country act as superiors with disregard of the local customs and the needs of the poor who never get a say in what happens to their country. Wars are never fought for the poor but almost always by the poor. Bombs don't discriminate between army camps or orphanages - they just blow up everything.

The TV show M.A.S.H ended in 1983 - the same year I graduated high school - but the wars didn't stop then. In fact America has been involved in our longest wars ever in Afghanistan and the recently ended war in Iraq. Over 10 years we have been wrecking peoples lives "over there" and what has it gotten us over here? Nothing. Not cheaper gas prices and not more freedoms - in fact we now have fewer of them. A few people profited handsomely from these wars - but not most Americans.

Nobody said it better than Bruce Springsteen (The Boss) "War - what is it good for - absolutely nothing"

UPDATE: I just wanted to add one thing here. Lots of comparisons have been made between President Obama and President Bush. I think the more important comparison is between President Obama and Senator McCain who would have been President instead. President Obama has ended one war and is hopefully winding down the war in Afghanistan (faster please!). Meanwhile Senator McCain has been on CNN at least once a week saying we should be involved in this war or that one. Thank GOD McCain did not get elected or we would be in many more unfunded and tragic conflicts. We need to keep our noses out of everyone else's business. We have our own problems right here in the USA.

UPDATE #2: As I watched an episode of Friends last night, something very relevant to this article kept popping up - the Twin Towers in the New York City skyline. Is that a good enough excuse for war?? Does it justify over 10 years of conflicts and more lives lost than were lost that day? Did those wars solve anything? The answer for me is no - but I'm sure anyone who lost a loved one that day would feel differently.