December 23, 2020
The New Phony War
By J. Robert Smith

As of the November elections, the nation is at war. It’s a 21st-century war, so it’s very different. Because it’s new, the scope and magnitude aren’t easily understood. It hasn’t been declared. It may never be. Hence, for many millions of Americans, perceptions are clouded or lagging. In human affairs, with change, this often occurs.

It’s the second American civil war, and its origins predate the November elections fraud, which seems on track to steal the presidency from the rightful winner, Donald J. Trump. The genesis of this civil war is the ideo-cultural war that has waxed and waned across the nation since the late 1960s. So, November’s election thievery might better be regarded as an outgrowth and escalation -- a potentially nation-shattering escalation – of that decades-old cultural conflict.

We are in the initial phase of the new civil war. Call it the phony war, which was also the “strangely quiet start to World War II.” The Second World War went eight months without significant hostilities on the Western Front, months marked by puzzlement and hesitancy (see the “Confetti War,” which stemmed from the Phony War.)

America’s first civil war had its phony phase of sorts, too. Lincoln was elected on November 6, 1860. Fort Sumter was attacked on April 12, 1861. Over five months, tensions built, and then hostilities commenced.

The parallels aren’t exact, of course. But the phony phase of this new civil war is reminiscent. One of the grievous errors made in warfare is fighting the current war like the last. In this instance, it’s expecting that wars have orthodoxies, and if those orthodoxies aren’t present, then there isn’t war. Understandings must change.

SNIP