They say War never Changes...

War... War never changes. Whether it be Ulysses S. Grant, or that guy from the Fallout video games saying it, it's an often used phrase that means something dark and dire, gritty... an idea of helplessness. If it never changes, then you can't change it. If you can't change it, what's the point in fighting it? Fighting back? Fighting at all?

The reality of the world we live in, is not a history lesson, or a video game cutscene. War has changed, and it continues to change. It will continue to change. I feel it will evolve, and then, at some point, it will become something so distant from what we consider "war" as today, it will not even be called war. Indeed, in some areas of the world, you see this already happening. "Conflict" and "clashes" have been substituted in for the word "war". Can you actually have a "war" if nobody declares "war"? It's not a novel idea, that much I know. Just ask your local congressman, how many presidents used their military powers "illegally" during a time of peace. There are powers allocated to the President for use in times of "war"... war, that only congress can declare.

To say that War never changes, is to hold a very grim and simplistic view on what war is. Your definition of war might be very different than mine, but to have a war, you must have a couple of very basic things, or so I thought, then again, I might be wrong! Do you need to have sides? What if a country is waging war against itself? A self-defeating evolutionary state where the powers that be, slowly loose to a majority of lesser, disenfranchised citizens who want a new way of living? For better or worse, it's happening here in the United States of America. The poor, the discriminated, the disenchanted people, are realizing that having an Iphone and a nice pair of Nike shoes, is no longer enough for them. They want, unquestioned, equality. Absolute equality. Unsympathetic, unapologetic, equality.

A simple missunderstanding.

I was leaving work the other night and I found that all three backdoors to my storefront, were locked. Someone had played an innocent joke on me, or... it was simply a matter of happenstance. Regardless, and feeling spirited, I and my son walked around the building and entered in through the front door, where I declared loudly, to my brother-in-law, "Man! You're an asshole!"

I promptly left and walked down toward the other front door when a voice asked from across the parking lot, "Yo! Why you callin me an asshole?"

I turned to the man and the vehicle he was in, and laughed. "I'm not calling you an asshole," I said. "I'm calling my brother-in-law an asshole."

"I ain't see nobody out here but me," the man said. He sounded a bit inebriated so I smiled, turned around and went inside. I said good-bye to my mother and father who were still working, and told them I'd see them the next day. I walked back out the front door and headed to my vehicle where my son was standing at the back door, giving me a weird look. It was as if he didn't want to get in the vehicle and was just standing there, with the door open.

"You think it's funny calling me an asshole?" I looked up to see the vehicle had now pulled out of the parking space, and was sideways behind my vehicle. The man's window was rolled down. He was looking right at me.

"I wasn't calling you an asshole," I replied, for the second time.

"I hope you're recording this as much as I am," he said.

I smiled. I have absolutely no qualms with being recorded. People love to record me. Take pics. Take video. I'll be a ham for you if you want. I could care less. I laughed. "I don't record people," I said. "People record me."

The man, I have no idea who he is, then got out of his car and spoke loudly, to someone whom I think was possibly on a vehicle phone connection or something. "This hair-line receeding mother fucker wants to fuck with me."

No. Nope, it was not on my list of things to do, but... in the infamous words of so many who were under-estimated because of their physical appearances, my thoughts were, Okay... I'll be your huckleberry.

The man grabs the bottom of his shirt, crossing his hands to do so. An unwise move if I ever saw one. My thoughts are pretty constant right then. I have to wait until he invades my personal space. Once that is done, I have authorization to act. I know this is being recorded. I've done my due dilligence to de-escalate the situation. He got out of his vehicle and approached me. Now, I just... wait.

My dad comes out of the office with his hands behind his back, talking shit. He's definitely not trying to de-escalate the situation. He's telling this guy to leave. The guy is now making fun of him, the way he's standing, etc. My brother-in-law comes out to join the "confrontation". It's war. It really is. But it's a mini-war, so we call it a "confrontation". My brother-in-law tells the guy to leave.

It's at this point that the guy starts claiming that HE was going to leave. HE was being the bigger man. The better man. HE was picking the high road.

My dad tells him, "then leave!"

"No!" he says. "Why should I leave? Because you tell me too?"

My brother-in-law tells him he needs to leave because the cops are on their way. The guy says, "good! I ain't leavin!"

My wife, my son and daughter, everyone is now in the parking lot and on the sidewalk, involved. The bar at the corner has dinner, drinks, and a show. A woman wanting to walk to the end of the sidewalk and cross the backend street to go home, is now fearful and stops, giving us a quick awkward smile, a hesitant laugh, and points out her intentions. My daughter is recording from afar. She waves the woman down to her area, reassuring her that nothing is going to happen. She's got it all on her phone and, my daughter, being who she is, is reasonably sure her dad is going to resolve this situation.

The guy "bows up" toward my dad, and my dad, not to be outdone, steps forward, again, with both his hands behind his back. I wince. Is he wanting to get hit or something? Just stand back. Go inside. He's not helping the situation. This guy, whoever he is, he's having a shitty day. That's all. He wants to fight someone, that much is clear. I want to tell him, give it a rest and go home, but... I know, he'll take offense to my every word, just as he has, from the get-go.

Then, I see my father has a box cutter wrapped in his hands. He's not assaulting this guy. He's not invading this guys space. He;s also not trying to de-escalate the situation. He might have brought it, thinking he might need to use it for defense, but now he's trying to get hit. He wants the guy to hit him. To give him an excuse. I tell my wife and she grabs him and pulls him backwards, ordering him back into the building. Reluctantly, he goes. His pride is hurt, he wants to be the protector, if anyone is going to get hurt, or get hit, or fight back, he wants to be the one to do it. But it's not for him to do. He thinks like a lot of old school people do. Give me an excuse. That's all they need. Am I any different?

A Jeep pulls up in between my truck and the guys car, and the guy rolls down the window on the passenger side and starts talking to the guy. I don;t know what's said.I hear the guy yell that he's not leaving, and then he is leaving, he's not, he is, he's not... and then he drives off. The driver of the Jeep looks at me, and says "sorry about that."

I smile. "I think he's just had a little too much," I say. I don't specify what though. Too much alcohol? Too much drugs? Too much violence? Too much stereotypical racism and discrimination? Too much inequality? Too much harassment? Too much dissatisfaction with his life? Too much disheartening news? Too much being let down... Too much. We've all been there. We've all had too much. And when too much is too much, we seek oblivion. We seek more, to push ourselves past the breaking point just to proove, we can take it.

Did that guy want to fight me? Probably not. He did say, when he was about to take off his shirt, and then didn't... it wasn't worth it. I totally agree. It's not. It never is. Violence begets violence. At the same time, one should be ever vigilant and look out for violence because, as it has been prooven time and time again, more and more people are choosing violence over discussion, escalation over de-escalation. Everyone wants to prove, they're in charge. They have rights. They aren't going to be told what to do, or how to do it, or when to do it. Nothing.

So then, why did he do this? Why did he decide he wanted a "confrontation" with me? Well... I can only assume. I can play devil's advocate. I can propose a number of reasons why, none of which are guaranteed to be the reason, and I may never know truly why, but, let's run through them.

I'm middle aged white guy, shaved my head two weeks ago because it was just getting unruly (my hair). I've got a growing bald spot, receeding hairline, I dislike shaving because of the added cost and I think I look better with facial hair. I'm not going for the Heisenberg look, but sans the hat and glasses, I'm about half-way there. So, did this guy decide I was going to be some racist guy who was going to get in his face and he was going to show me a thing or two? Was he wanting to be the next victim of white on black hate? He said he was recording it. I feel like, if he shows his friends, they're all going to laugh their asses off, and be like "that dude's looking at you like you're high as fuck!" They'd be right.

War, in it's simplest terms, is a disagreement. War does not have to incude violence. War can be cyber hacking. There is a war on drugs. There is a war on prostitution, child labor, smuggling, inequality, and of course the infamous "cold war" where Russia and the United States just basically sat there with nuclear arsenal pointed at each other, waiting for each other to launch the first nuke. There wasn't a lot of posturing, threats, etc. Not a lot of violence. Just... pointing.

But war, in a more complex sense of things, is harder to control, unless you appease one hundred percent of your population. A people subdued and terrorized will slowly fight back in ways their oppresors cannot imagine. A cup of coffee, served daily for years, may suddenly be laced with cyanide. Oppresors will find death at the hands of those they oppress. Terrorists will die at the hands of those they terrorize. In all cases, innocents bear the scars, and often die as well, which is why, as a whole, MOST human beings object to war.

As a majoruty of military members, why they do it, and they'll tell you it's their job. YES it comes with a measure of pride, honor, and dedication, but soldiers, military members, members of the armed forces, respect each other. United States Military personnnel routinely work with other countries militaries on joint operations, joint task forces, combat training exercises. They work together, until their commanders, generals, admirals and presidents order them to do otherwise.

There are PLENTY of instances where the military of a specific country or nation, refuse to fight. In Iraq, Saddam's forces routinely surrendered to US Military. In Afghanistan, forces scatter, only to return weeks or months later with a suicide vest strapped to their body. In Russia, some of their military refuse to fire on the Ukranian people. Sadly, others choose to fire, and kill innocent people. Regardless of their reasoning, regardless of their logic, war is changing. War is now becoming taboo. Something looked down upon, an unfavorable consequence of a LEADERS FAILED ABILITY TO NEGOTIATE.

Today's wars are being fought on the intetnet with dissinformation campaigns, concerted efforts of mass propaganda, lies, confusion, and a steady need of those in power, to remain, in power. Putin has invested so much in his war on Ukraine, he is willing to subject his entire country to crippling sanctions, the elimination of the Russian people to go anywhere, leave their country for anything. Realistically, he has cut the Russian people off, as Kim Jong-un has cut off North Korea from the rest of the world. The only difference is, North Korea is miniscule compared to all of Russia. Even so different, their countries and leaders show an alarming number of similarities.

North Korea insists that it's Nuclear capabilities are the only reason why the rest of the world takes them seriously. The North Korean Government lies to it's people and controls the information in that country with an iron fist. To a large extent, Vladmir Putin is turning Russia into the largest hermit country on this planet. Cut off from the outside world, Russia will be forced to become 100% self sufficient. That's a hard thing to do when 90% of the country's resources are owned and controlled by their leader. It's even harder to do when the only people you serve, are your own people.

In the dark ages, I'm sure Russian villages were able to produce food enough for themselves, and hunt enough game to eat. But in today's day and age, huge farms now produce items that flourish in Russia's geographical location, specific products that can be made in excess and exported for profit. That profit can then be used to purchase goods from other importers, to enrich the lives of Russians, and at the same time, a portion of both monetary transactions, lines Putin's pockets. Now, there will be very little trade outside Russia, and the rupes lining Putin's pockets will be used to try and thwart the sanctions against Putin and his croonies, and to import items through China and North Korea, items that China can scarcely provide all on it's own, to supply a country that holds more land mass than itself... North Korea... well, let's just say, they have little else to offer than blood and bone, but their leader is always willing to sacrifice his own people if it means he will have more power, more control, and more "legitimacy".

War. War never changes. And then, it does, and it's still the same. War.