… and that’s not an accident.
There’s a pattern no one seems to want to talk about: every time America declares a “”war” on something, it loses. Spectacularly. Repeatedly. Almost like it’s designed to fail–or at least never meat to succeed.
Let’s take a stroll down our hall of shame:
The War on Drugs
Launched in the 1970s and ramped up in the 80s, this war didn’t end drug use. It militarized police, packed prisons, and devastated communities (especially Black and brown ones). Meanwhile, Big Pharma ran its own cartel out in the open with opioids. The result? A multi-decade failure that somehow made drugs more common. But hey, prison stocks are doing great.
The War on Poverty
LBJ declared this one in the 60s. Ambitious? Sure. But instead of ending poverty, we got decades of underfunded programs sabotaged by both parties. Fast forward to now: wages are stagnant, homelessness is rising, and billionaires are joyriding to space. Poverty didn’t lose. It adapted, got a tech job, and learned to live in a car.
The War on Terror
We “won” this one by destabilizing the Middle East, fueling global extremism, and wasting trillions of dollars. Afghanistan? A 20-year disaster with a Taliban victory lap at the end. Iraq? Invaded based on lies. Terrorism didn’t disappear, it diversified and learned to livestream.
The War on Crime
What this really turned into was a war on poor people, especially people of color. Instead of addressing root causes–like inequality, housing, education–we militarized police, filled private prisons, and normalized, a surveillance state. Crime didn’t go away, it just got rebranded. And the police budget? It’s still the only socialist program America will never cut.
Losing is the business model. These “wars” aren’t meant to be won. They’re meant to be permanent. They justify bloated budgets, feed private industries, and generate endless political theatre. You can’t win a war if winning means ending the gift.
It’s not a bug, it’s the point.
Sisyphus Shrugged 
Fear is the spanner of control, the conservatives a couple of state elections ago said that everyone in Melbourne was afraid to go out to dinner at night because of machete armed bands of Sudanese teenagers roaming around. This was a lie that originated from our arm of the Murdoch media machine – in news that will shock no one.
It became a joke that is sometimes bought up when the conservatives lose the Victorian elections – again. On some level though these things work – or used to work – we’ve had the same wars as you have, apparently the war on Christians/Christmas/Tinsel is still going strong. Nightly – Muslims, the remanent of the Khmer Rouge, Knights Templar, Satan and the trade unions meet to take drugs, listen to black metal and eat oysters while planning the downfall of all that is good and kind.
I never get invited to these soirees – because they don’t exist, as you said the point is to invent boogie-monsters not to make the world a better place. I wish those parties were real, and that people thought, even a tiny bit.
This is why the last time I tried to re-read 1984 I had to stop and find that pack of cigarettes I hadn’t touched for almost a year.
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For real. I remember all these Satanic sex orgies that were supposedly popping up all across America. These assholes never invited me to any of them. Jerks.
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Me neither! Ripped off! Not even an end times nuddie party!
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