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Which is one of the reasons I am unsettled by the talk of civil war we sometimes see.

I understand 100% the sentiment, and it may be true that we are indeed heading for a point of no conciliation with people who wish to destroy our Constitution and ways of life, as I accurately characterize the American Left, in my opinion.

But it is my feeling that people who clamor for this kind of thing get caught up in it without sufficiently recognizing or acknowledging that the death, suffering, cost, and long term misery that will be imposed cause most of the people involved to wonder how, once completely enveloped in the conflict, it ever started, and how they could get out of it.

For some reason, out of the blue, I felt like watching “Gone With The Wind” the other night, and it was the attitude “Well, the war will be over in a few weeks” that was accepted and prevalent. Granted, that was only a Hollywood movie, but I know that was the sentiment of many. Hell, that explains the crazy behavior of people at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manasses) who came in carriages with picnics to watch.

It appears to me the US is now in a ‘cold war’ phase similar to the period 1849 to 1860, It does not mean a general conflict is inevitable anymore than the Cold War of 1947 to 1989 meant a war was inevitable. The interaction of personalities and events drives the action. In the case of the late US-Soviet duel we are fortunate that Stalin wasn't ten years younger. Then, I believe, there would have been another real world war beginning in 1953-56 Stalin knew the US would soon have an overwhelming advantage in nuclear weapons so starting a war to control western Europe and the Middle East would seem a good idea while the conventional forces of the USSR really did massively outnumber the US and the still weak NATO. Soviet military people told their US counterparts that the USSR had endured the equivalent of a nuclear war in 1941-45, US retaliatory strength could not. circa early 1950’s even begin to inflict the destruction the war with Hitler produced. So the Soviet military establishment was not much impressed with a nuclear war. Now thermonuclear would be something else altogether.