War comes around again because there is always a market for men who want to sound grave on television.
They put on the face. The one that says history is heavy and difficult and regrettable. Then they start talking about targets, corridors, assets, response. A whole language built to keep flesh out of the sentence.
Meanwhile some kid is missing half a hand. Some woman is standing in a blasted kitchen holding a pot that will never go back on a stove. Some father is carrying a blanket with the wrong weight in it.
Back here, people discuss escalation like wine.
What bothers me is how quickly everybody gets used to it. A week in, the dead become background. Two weeks in, the commentators are already admiring each other’s seriousness. A month in, somebody is selling flags and somebody else is talking about stability.
War doesn’t just kill people. It makes language filthy.
