Making love while making war is what we see in Game of Thrones. Sex and violence sell. But then we are talking about entertainment. Real life entertains no such fantasy.

Real war is no game. Real love is no entertainment. When we say we love our country so much that we are willing to shed blood for it, we are also saying we hate war so much that we are unwilling to leave our loved ones whom we may never see again. Generations of Americans before us have been trapped in this paradox. Most of them survived, only to see yet another outbreak of war. 

The shadow of war is always looming, like it or not. We don't like it. Yet we take it -- until we can take it no more. When we can take it no more, we say it out loud. We protest. We vote warmongers out of office. Hawks out. Doves in. A dovish president may come with an olive branch for the world. COVID or no COVID, he or she may have millions of folks march behind him or her, singing John Lennon's "Imagine."  Well, there is no business quite like show business in politics. 

Meanwhile, China keeps its Xinjiang labor force busy, sells us stuff, challenges our 7th Fleet in the Western Pacific, and sends warplanes into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Not far behind China are Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, you name it. "Down with the American Empire!" Cry the countries we are supposed to make peace with. Soon enough, hawks are back. So goes the hawk-and-dove cycle. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Make war when we must. Make peace when we can. Make love when we must and when we can.

Author: Lingyang Jiang