The de-facto state of war.

"Mr President, we are now at a de-facto state of war":
- a comment on the parallels between love and war...

Just as it is with war, a relationship almost never begins with a single, tangible event. Both result from a culmination of increasingly intense circumstances that when considered as a whole (often by a third party) signify an all-consuming shift in priority.

No one really asks another if they will be their girl/boy-friend; the request to 'go steady' was only ever a Happy Days construct and so just as with death, the event has become a process; as real but thankfully less inevitable.

If my basic knowledge of war history and the flotilla of war films i have happily let cruise past me at 50hz are to be believed, then war (and as i'll explain, relationships) mark the end of any prior peaceful/personal predispositions. All bets are off.

For example, an ambassador is killed in foreign soil, missiles are edged forward and embargoes flaunted. Individually these actions raise attention and generate condemnation, together, in the right political climate they instigate war. Similarly an unforced compliment, dancing in close proximity and general breaching of friendly protocol will do the same to start a relationship.

War never begins with mutual consent, there is always an instigator. A good war however sees equally matched sides that after the ferocity of early battles, grow to respect each others qualities and learn to predict, even deal with each others moves. While it's true, love can begin when 'eyes meet over a crowded room', someone has to make the first move and from there the barrage of dates and trysts develops into a deep-rooted admiration and genuine need for one another. 

As for the most common cause; for oil read sex and for genocide read cheating. Unfortunately victory is less simple to make metaphor. That said ending either is always more difficult than starting them.

Being a pacifist-President / single-Man is not a bad thing, it is a cherished an enviable status. All my friends are at war, have been for years and most likely forever will be. To find that one pure war is the ideal, an adversary so well matched that the act of war becomes second nature, essential and preferable. But for me, as yet, not enviable. Perhaps that is about to change, perhaps this impending attack is the invasion i have been waiting for. But perhaps it is just a conflict, a search for oil prompted by larger already war-torn states. Their memory of peace long-since replaced by the war they entered in attempt to reach it.

The outcome of war is either total domination of one by the other or a total mutual destruction, both of which are fine as long as they remain unacknowledged by one or both. The guilt of victory is nothing in comparison to the horror of loss.

I have not prepared for war, those who do generally only achieve conflicts, due to an intent so overpowering that their adversary is forced quickly into retreat. That said i can mobilise quickly, have many fronts and most importantly am willing to sacrifice for the greater good. 

But until the hour is upon me i shall continue with this blissful state of civil war where i am both and neither victim or conquerer.

Make Love War