Do They Ever Stop and Wonder about the High Price of All of This

Humanity is now left with a challenge: how to subdue and hold accountable the awesome power that the United States built up during the Cold War.
Mahmood Mamdani

As they proudly watch their military attack aircraft
Arrogantly fly by overhead
While belting out their multi-vocal versions of the national anthem
And observing, the robot-like soldiers, stylishly marching past
Do they ever stop, and wonder, about the high price of all of this?
Or are they just overwhelmed by the incredible display of this brutal power peacefully
In these fluid and multidimensional uncertain times
As they flock in hundreds of thousands to military airfields for the awesome sights and sounds
Ooohing and Aaahing, at the latest and highly touted military hardware, in front of them
And look at the young soldiers and marines jumping out of large transport aircraft and gliding out of attack helicopters
Do they ever stop, and wonder, about the high price of all this?
For themselves, for their families and especially for their grandchildren
Of all of the money, and of all of the talent, that all of this could have been better spent on
Schools
Hospitals
Good-paying jobs
Cleaning up the collapsing and protesting environment
By coming up and introducing renewable energy sources
Do they ever stop, and wonder, about the high price of all of this cutting-edge military technology??
As they are invited to see the latest massive aircraft carriers groaning with their deadly load of weaponry
And the latest silent attack submarines cynically peeping at them on top of the waves
Do they ever stop and wonder about the high price of all of this???
Which, mostly those in the Third World, and in the U.S. “backyard”, have had to pay dearly for time and again and for more than a hundred and twenty years by now
And still counting
Do they ever stop, and wonder, about the high price of all of this????
As they view the latest plans for even more fantastic and surreal military equipment unmatched anywhere
In the process, making war and military conflicts, ever more virtual to most of them and their families
Beyond a well-placed pin, of the North American flag, on their work clothes and expensively tailored suits
And, North American flags, flying over their houses and in their front yards
Do they really ever take the time and stop, and wonder, about where all of this will lead us all someday??

©Gregory Gilbert Gumbs