DISAPPEARING DREAMS OF YESTERDAY

Too young for the grinder of Vietnam, but not too young to self-deceive, we once believed war was not inevitable -- believed, in fact, that we might live out our remaining days and never again know of soil soaked with the lifeblood of young American warriors.

Too young, too naive, too willing to believe in inherent goodness and the notion that everything will be all right, we be-bopped through life's dance, stupid and gullible. Now we seriously wonder if bodies must be drafted into armed service to feed the machinery of war.

Seymour Hersh, the journalist, has a new story in The New Yorker. It tells of a struggle between U.S. politicians and generals over the issue of Iran, and a distressing shift in how we're dealing with that nation. A shift in strategy is now afoot, Hersh alleges:

The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

The lonely bell that Kris Kristofferson wrote about now echoes through the canyon.