The Guadalajara Reporter

A time of bitter debate

Memorial Day was fittingly celebrated, both here and north of the border, with solemnity, reverence, good cheer and elegant settings wrapped in moving the world’s “universal tongue” — music.  The occasions that many of us witnessed, rightly, and thankfully, emphasized a nation’s often awkward hand of aid to those who have served to defend the United States in ways and venues complex and baffling, most of them dangerous.

It is unavoidably clear that the toll of two long wars has been overwhelming. President Barack Obama has promised to “bring home the troops,” and he is doing that.  But it would be naive to believe America’s enemies are going to cease their war.  Whatever the future holds, it is doubtful that it will be untrammeled peace. 

It is also true that 9.11.01 was a maniac’s doing.  But more than a few United States citizens —and many others — believe that a misguided and hubristic foreign policy prompted that attack.  That debate promises to go on for decades.

That is not healthy for a nation suffering from a deep political fragmentation, thus far unresponsive to the band-aids that various groups are clumsily, sometimes spuriously or half-heartedly, trying to apply.

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