#lost a whole rank and a half after one loss with 2 dcs

[thecollegefootballguy]

The Top 25 Teams of the Decade: #2 Ohio State

Hello everybody, we’re almost done celebrating the arrival of the 2020′s by looking at the 25 best programs of the previous decade.

We’ve made it to the top five! If you’ve been reading this whole time thank you. Here’s the 2nd best team of the 2010′s

THE Ohio State University Buckeyes

Record: 117-18 (.867) Division Titles: 8 Conference Titles: 5 Bowl Seasons: 9 Major Bowls: 8 Playoff/BCS Berths: 3 National Championships: 1 Final Top 25 Finishes: 9 Final Top 10 Finishes: 8 Final Top 5 Finishes: 7 Best Season: 2014

This might not be a popular move to put Ohio State ahead of Clemson. The Tigers did win two national championships and the Buckeyes only one. I totally understand if you personally disagree, I think they’re neck and neck here. OSU was simply better than Clemson for a longer period of time, the Tigers did all of their best work in the past five seasons, whereas Ohio State began hot and more or less stayed that way aside from a slight blip in 2011. 

The Buckeyes were one of the best teams of the 2010′s because they were one of the best teams in the 2000′s. Jim Tressel had rebuilt OSU into a wrecking machine that utterly dominated the Big Ten. After winning the national championship for the 2002 season, Ohio State won or tied for the Big Ten title for five straight years leading into 2010.

Nobody knew it at the time, but 2010 would end up being Jim Tressel’s last season in Columbus, and it went pretty much like the rest of his tenure. The Buckeyes began the year ranked 2nd in the nation with clear BCS aspirations. OSU swept the floor with their scrub MAC and C-USA opponents in September and beat #12 Miami 36-34 to add a bit of prestige to their hot start. Ohio State kept on rolling when Big Ten play began, beating Illinois and Indiana without much fuss. In mid-October, the Buckeyes climbed into first place after defending champs Alabama lost to South Carolina. OSU’s first date as the #1 team was at Camp Randall against #18 Wisconsin for College Gameday. The Badgers shut down the Ohio State offense, felling the Buckeyes 31-18. The loss was enough to snuff out OSU’s national title hopes, even though they rebounded with strength. Ohio State blew their way through Purdue, Minnesota, and Penn State before nearly falling to #21 Iowa at Kinnick. The Buckeyes handled Michigan 37-7, securing a share of third place with Wisconsin and Michigan State. The Badgers earned the Rose Bowl bid, so #6 OSU was selected to face #8 Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl. Ohio State rushed out to a 28-7 lead and coasted through the second half to a 31-26 victory. 12-1 with a final #5 ranking was another successful season in the books. The Buckeyes didn’t win the title yet again, but they were well placed to try again next year.

Well it didn’t quite end up going that way. Stud QB Terrelle Pryor was busted along with four other teammates for selling memorabilia and suspended for the first five games. Tressel said he would sit out with them but under mounting pressure submitted his resignation. Pryor then decided to enter the draft instead of playing a truncated season under media scrutiny. In a very short amount of time, OSU lost their best player and the architect of the program. Co-DC Luke Fickell was given a field promotion as the interim head coach. The situation could have been salvaged, Ohio State was still the most talented team in the Big Ten, but things unraveled rather quickly. After beating Akron and Toledo (uncomfortably close), the Buckeyes fell to Miami on the return date and dropped from the rankings for the first time in six years. OSU rallied to beat hapless Colorado the next week, but then took two on the chin from Michigan State and Nebraska in back to back weeks. A 3-3 Ohio State was unthinkable just a month before, bet there they wore. The Buckeyes were lucky to not completely collapse, they rallied to beat ranked Illinois and Wisconsin squads and then put away a crap Indiana team to gain bowl eligibility. However the season would end with a thud, as Ohio State dropped another three straight to Purdue, Penn State, and Michigan. In a bitterly ironic matchup, the 6-6 Buckeyes faced off against 6-6 Florida in a meeting of suddenly collapsed programs. OSU and UF spent the past six years as two of the best teams in the country, even meeting up for the 2007 BCS National Championship Game. The Gators won 24-17, handing Ohio State their first losing record since 1988. For some reason, Luke Fickell wasn’t retained as the permanent head coach. Instead, the Buckeyes landed the big one.

Urban Meyer was the big free agent coach in 2012. He had taken Utah and Florida to new heights before “retiring” for “health reasons” at the end of the 2010 season. It was rumored that he was waiting on the Ohio State job, and well, that’s what happened. Meyer took over the Buckeyes and immediately raised the program out of the funk they’d found themselves in, though sanctions would prevent them from competing in the postseason. OSU began the year ranked 18th in the country. QB Braxton Miller won the starting job and led Ohio State through a relatively weak non-conference schedule which included wins over Cal and a pretty solid UCF squad. The Buckeyes had climbed up to 14th in the AP poll before the Big Ten schedule, and their first matchup was against defending Legends Division champs #20 Michigan State. OSU squeaked past with a 17-16 victory in East Lansing. The next week was a date with #25 Nebraska, who would end up being the Legends Champs in 2012. Once again, Ohio State prevailed 63-38. Suddenly the Buckeyes saw daylight. A wide open stretch in the schedule more or less handed several consecutive wins to OSU. Hapless Indiana and a mediocre Purdue squad were put away (with some effort), and Ohio State then beat Penn State, who were undergoing an even more severe rebuild after the Joe Paterno scandal. The Buckeyes took care of business against Illinois, the worst team in the conference, before facing off against Wisconsin, the only team left in the division with a pulse. OSU gutted out an overtime victory over the Badgers, and suddenly left #20 Michigan as the only thing keeping Ohio State from going undefeated. The #4 Buckeyes outscored their archrivals 26-21 to secure their perfect 12-0 record. In any other year it would have been enough to get them in the conversation to win the national championship, but not in 2012. OSU is the last undefeated program from a Power conference not to win a national championship. Let me be clear, the computers tell us this team would have been stomped by Alabama, Oregon, Kansas State, and perhaps even the Notre Dame team that did get stomped by Bama. But they should have had a shot anyway.

It’s hard to improve on perfection, but Ohio State did their level best. Braxton Miller was back, as was RB Carlos Hyde, and a good proportion of NFL talent. The Buckeyes started the year ranked 2nd in the country, which is pretty fair considering their 12-0 record the year before. OSU once again ran over their non-conference opponents before facing off against two ranked Big Ten foes. Ohio State faced off against #22 Wisconsin, who ended up being their biggest conference in the Leaders Division, and won 31-24. The next week, the Buckeyes faced off against undefeated #16 Northwestern on College Gameday. OSU won 40-30 but the Wildcats turned into a pumpkin after the loss, going 5-7 at the end of the year. Ohio State beat Iowa, then smacked PSU, Purdue, Illinois, and Indiana before once again setting up a date with destiny against Michigan. The Wolverines didn’t look like too tough of an opponent, with their Brady Hoke collapse well under way, but the Buckeyes could only manage a too close for comfort 42-41 victory over UM. No matter, OSU was once again undefeated in the regular season, extending their winning streak to 24 consecutive games. #2 Ohio State was well on their way to a spot in the final BCS Title Game, but they had to make their way past 11-1 #10 Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship. The Buckeyes fell behind 17-0 before rallying back to take a 24-17 lead, but they the Spartans came to life again and stuffed OSU several times en route to a 34-24 victory. OSU was handed their first loss under Urban Meyer, and were relegated to the Orange Bowl against #8 Clemson. The Tigers won the contest 40-35, dropping Ohio State to 12-2 and a final #12 ranking in the AP poll. It was about as disappointing as a season can go when you go undefeated through the regular season.

Despite the stumble at the end of the 2013 season, the Buckeyes were expected to compete for a national championship. They began the year ranked 5th in the AP poll, just outside of the top 4 that would get them into the newly expanded Playoff. Braxton Miller was back, but he was out for the season due to an injury in camp. Miller was replaced by capable backup J.T. Barrett, who had help in the backfield from RBs Ezekiel Elliot and Curtis Samuel. OSU began the year with a 34-17 win over Navy in Baltimore, which wasn’t a huge victory but it got the job done. The win actually dropped Ohio State to 8th in the polls, which is a bit funny, but the Buckeyes should have been able to coast through the rest of their nonconference schedule before going deep through a soft early Big Ten slate. Well, it didn’t actually happen that way. OSU went down to Blacksburg and were upset 21-35. If it had been a close loss, it would have been a severe blow to Ohio State’s championship hopes, but the two touchdown difference signaled to everybody that the Buckeyes were going to need a year off before competing again. OSU tumbled down to 22nd in the rankings and they stayed in the 20s for the rest of September as they mopped up their final two easy out of conference games. Ohio State made short work of their rather weak opponents through October with the exception of Penn State, who took the Buckeyes to double overtime before falling 31-24. Events were building up to a dramatic meeting with #7 Michigan State in the second week of November. The Spartans were the first team to beat Meyer’s OSU and were now the Buckeyes’ only real competition in the new East Division. In front of College Gameday, #13 Ohio State won 49-37 in East Lansing, wresting firm control of the division into their hands. After a touchdown victory over Minnesota, OSU coasted to easy wins over Indiana and Michigan to finish the season 11-1 and a surprising 5th place in the Playoff rankings despite the early stumble against the Hokies. It was a good attempt, but Ohio State was virtually assured to be left out of the Playoff in a crowded field. The Big Ten Championship featured the Buckeyes and #13 Wisconsin, easily the toughest competition from the West. It was supposed to be a tough slog under any circumstances, but J.T. Barrett was injured in The Game and the remainder of his season was finished. Barrett was replaced by redshirt sophomore Cardale Jones, who would be making his first career start. In a monstrous showcase of power, OSU obliterated the Badgers 59-0, making an emphatic case that they should be in the Playoff over the several other contestants. It worked. In an extremely controversial move, Ohio State was ranked the #4 team by the Committee, vaulting over former #3 TCU who seemed like a surefire bid. The Buckeyes weren’t supposed to be there, and as the lowest seed they were put up against #1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, a surefire death sentence. OSU shocked everybody by roaring back from a 21-6 deficit to stun the Tide 42-35. At times it looked like Ohio State was even bullying the stout Bama line as Elliot muscled his way through the gaps. The Buckeyes would face #2 Oregon in the National Championship Game, who had just humiliated defending champs Florida State in the Rose Bowl. The Ducks were the polar opposite of the Crimson Tide, and would be a different kind of puzzle to solve. But they were solved. OSU ended up running away with a 42-20 win to secure their first national title since the 2002 season.

Ohio State had a rather unique problem in 2015. Established QB Braxton Miller had a medical redshirt and was eligible to return to the field after losing his entire 2014 season. J.T. Barrett, who had gone 11-1 the previous year as the regular season starter before getting injured against Michigan, was also coming back. As was Cardale Jones, who had guided the Buckeyes through the Big Ten Championship, Sugar Bowl, and National Championship Games. And buried fifth or sixth in the depth chart was some freshman nobody named Joe Burrow. Also, all-world RB Ezekiel Elliot was back. An embarrassment of riches in the backfield that you almost never see. Blue blood problems right? Miller took the tough choice to switch positions to H-back to turn a three-way race into two. It was a shockingly selfless move for a star Quarterback, and may have cost him in the NFL when he left after the season. Jones beat out Barrett in fall camp, and would lead OSU’s campaign as the defending champs. This time there was no September tomfoolery, as #1 Ohio State went undefeated through their non-conference slate. Though Northern Illinois only lost 20-13, which wasn’t the best display. The Buckeyes continued to take care of business through their first three Big Ten games, but with two NFL draft picks waiting in the wings, there was a very short leash. Cardale Jones was benched in favor of Barrett, who started for the rest of the season. Barrett won his first three games against mediocre Rutgers, Minnesota, and Illinois. The final two games were OSU’s only ranked matchups in the regular season, against stalwart Michigan State and a newly resurgent Michigan. Ohio State was a consistent 3rd in the Playoff rankings behind Clemson and whoever was leading the SEC, and were first matched up against #9 Michigan State. The Buckeyes were likely a better team, but they were shut down all the same, falling 14-17 at home to ruin their chances at the repeat. The Game featured #8 OSU against the #10 Wolverines, but Ohio State stomped UM 42-13 to once again finish the regular season 11-1. This time, it wasn’t good enough to land a spot in the Playoff. The #7 Buckeyes were given an at-large bid against #8 Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, where they beat up the Irish 44-28. OSU was likely one of the four best teams in the country, and should have been in the Playoff if it was based on pure team quality. Oh well, they should have beaten Michigan State.

Braxton Miller, Cardale Jones, Ezekiel Elliot, and Joey Bosa were all gone, but a new boatload of talent was on its way, still led by J.T. Barrett behind center.  As the 2016 season started, Ohio State was once again the Big Ten favorite, ranked 6th in the AP poll. The Buckeyes made short work of their non-con schedule, including an humiliating 45-24 win over fellow preseason Playoff favorite #14 Oklahoma in Norman. OSU bashed Rutgers and Indiana before their first big conference test against #8 Wisconsin in Camp Randall. The Badgers took Ohio State to overtime, only falling by a touchdown. Hopes were high that the Buckeyes could ride comfortably into the Playoff, or at least to Michigan without any fuss. However, unranked Penn State upset OSU 24-21 the very next week on a last second missed field goal return reminiscent of the Kick Six. It was a tough loss, but not fatal to Ohio State’s Playoff hopes, as the Buckeyes only fell from 2nd to 6th place. OSU looked shaky with a close win over Northwestern, but completely obliterated an overrated #10 Nebraska squad 62-3. After doing the same thing to Maryland, Ohio State once again had to clear Michigan State and Michigan in back to back weeks to end the regular season. Both games came down to the wire. The Buckeyes squeaked past the Spartans 17-16 in East Lansing, setting up a date with destiny with the Wolverines. #2 OSU vs #3 UM with a berth in the Playoff on the line. Michigan held the advantage for most of the game, but Ohio State hung tough and forced overtime and double overtime. With a bit of helps perhaps, the Buckeyes ended up winning 30-27 to once again secure an 11-1 record. Once again, their sole loss decided the East tiebreaker, preventing Ohio State from playing in the Big Ten Championship game in favor of 10-2 Penn State, who had gone undefeated since beating the Buckeyes. Either way, OSU was going to the Playoff as the #3 seed, becoming the first team to crack the top four that didn’t win their conference championship game. Ohio State faced off against #2 Clemson and it wasn’t pretty. The Buckeyes were completely shut out 31-0 in the Fiesta Bowl and finished 6th in both major polls.

OSU began they 2017 season ranked 2nd in the country and hopes were high that they could get back to the championship game. But Ohio State ended up hitting a speed bump pretty early. After toying around with Indiana for a bit in a 49-21 win, the Buckeyes hosted #5 Oklahoma on the return trip of their home and home. This time, OSU fell 31-16 in a resounding loss that once again jeopardized their Playoff hopes. Ohio State fell to 8th in the AP the next week, before bottoming out at 11th after being leapfrogged by other undefeated teams. For the rest of September through mid-October, the Buckeyes pounded a bunch of scrubs in and out of conference play until meeting up with #2 Penn State on October 28th to decide the East for the second year in a row. This time it was #6 OSU who drove the stake into the Nittany Lions’ hearts, pulling out a 39-38 win in Ohio Stadium. Ohio State vaulted up to 3rd in the AP poll, but remained 6th in the Playoff rankings. Perhaps the Playoff Committee saw a bit of weakness displayed by the Buckeyes, and they were proven correct. The very next week, the Buckeyes became the highest profile victim of the Iowa Hawkeyes, who had a knack for kneecapping high profile opponents in Iowa City. OSU was pantsed 24-55 by the Hawkeyes, completely falling out the Playoff race with their second loss. Maybe the loss straightened their heads at least, because now #13 Ohio State obliterated #12 Michigan State 48-3 the next week. The Buckeyes breezed past Illinois and put away Michigan 31-20 to finish the 10-2, their worst mark in the regular season since the 2011 fiasco. At least this time OSU were the outright East division champions. #8 Ohio State faced off against undefeated #4 Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Buckeyes out-gritted the Badgers once again, winning 27-21. 11-2 OSU had a decent claim to be the 4 seed in the Playoff, but that (deservedly) went to 11-1 Alabama instead. Instead, #5 Ohio State would face off against #8 USC in the Cotton Bowl in something of a Rose Bowl East situation as the Granddaddy was hosting Oklahoma and Georgia that year. The Buckeyes easily handled the Trojans 24-7 to finish the year 5th in the nation, the best among the non-Playoff squads.

2018 was weird. Ohio State was once again picked to win the Big Ten and contend for the Playoff, but they started out entirely on the wrong foot. Urban Meyer was suspended for the first three games for his knowledge and mishandling of former subordinate Zach Smith’s domestic abuse. J.T. Barret was gone, and former backup Dwayne Haskins took over. 2nd year OC Ryan Day was tasked with guiding the Buckeyes in the interim. That wasn’t an issue, as OSU stomped hapless Oregon State and Rutgers before an easy 40-24 win over #15 TCU in Arlington. Meyer returned just in time to crush Tulane, but the big game lay just beyond. #4 Ohio State traveled to Happy Valley to face #9 PSU. In another hard fought game, Ohio State prevailed 27-26 to once again open up the path to the Playoff. Once again, only the Spartans and Wolverines were likely to provide any threat for the rest of the season. The Buckeyes breezed past Indiana and Minnesota before completely losing the plot against Purdue. The Boilermakers dealt #2 OSU their most humiliating loss in the entire decade, running all over the Ohio State 49-20. The team look like it had just quit by the fourth quarter, against Purdue, who had spent much of the 2010′s as a bottom feeder. The first Playoff ranking the next week slotted the Buckeyes 10th with only a month to go, this one ultimate loss was the only one they’d need to get locked out of the top four. It didn’t help that OSU looked shaken up for the next several weeks, nearly losing to both bad Nebraska and Maryland squads. Of course, Ohio State returned to form in time to crush #4 Michigan 62-39, once again killing their archrival’s hopes at the Playoff. The #6 Buckeyes faced off against #21 Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Wildcats weren’t a particularly good team and didn’t pose much of a threat in a 45-24 defeat. OSU had managed to claw their way back to 6th in the rankings, but it wasn’t enough to crack the Playoff. Instead, they were matched up against #9 Washington in the Rose Bowl. Surprisingly, despite all of their success in the decade, this was Ohio State’s first time in the Rose Bowl since January 1st, 2010. The Buckeyes stonewalled the Huskies for three quarters before letting their foot off the gas, allowing UW to somewhat save face in a 28-23 loss. 13-1 OSU finished 3rd in the rankings, and had played like a contender almost all season besides that upset to the Boilermakers and it ruined everything.

In a shocking turn of events, Urban Meyer announced his resignation following the Rose Bowl victory. OC Ryan Day, who had spent the first three games of the 2018 season as the interim head coach, was now given the gig full time. Meyer had left the cupboard fully stocked and Day took full advantage. Record setting QB Dwayne Haskins had left for the NFL, and now J.K. Dobbins was taking over. The Buckeyes started the year 5th in the AP poll, and completely justified the rating by burning through every opponent they played in the month of September. OSU ran through the mix of non-conference and Big Ten foes by a combined 262-43. Ohio State’s first ranked opponent was #25 Michigan State, but the Spartans couldn’t match up with the Buckeyes’ physicality, losing 34-10. After demolishing Northwestern 52-3 in Evanston, OSU faced off against #13 Wisconsin. The Badgers were looking like a Playoff caliber team before suffering an upset to Illinois the week prior, and Ohio State completely stomped on their rebound hopes with a 38-7 housing. This Buckeye team was different than the those of the later Meyer years, which had a weakness or an Achilles Heel some opponent could take advantage of. 2019 OSU seemingly had no weaknesses. The last two games of the season were against #8 Penn State and #13 Michigan, which would end up deciding the East division. It wasn’t really a contest. Ohio State easily beat the Nittany Lions 28-17, their closest game in the regular season. Of course they ended the year with a 56-27 humiliation of UM in Ann Arbor. The Buckeyes had actually climbed to 1st place in the Playoff rankings over LSU with the back to back wins. The OSU war machine would meet Wisconsin for a rematch in the Big Ten Championship Game. It went about as well as the first one, with the Badgers playing close for a quarter before Ohio State pulled away 34-21. The Buckeyes ended up as the 2 seed in the Playoff, and would host Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. It was a titanic struggle between two championship caliber squads, but the Tigers ended up with the 29-23 victory. 13-1 OSU finished 3rd in the nation behind Clemson and the peaking LSU squad that mauled them in the championship game. They must be one of the better third place teams in recent history.

Ohio State is probably set up for the foreseeable future. Ryan Day has been given the keys to the Ferrari and hasn’t crashed it after one year, in fact, they seem even better than before. As long as the war machine keeps running we can keep penciling in the Buckeyes as the Big Ten champs. 

OSU did very well against their rivals in the 2010′s. I don’t think most people consider Illinois a rival anymore, which is fine because Ohio State hasn’t treated the rivalry as such. The Buckeyes are 7-0 against the Illini. Penn State might also be a rival, and recently a more serious one with the Nittany Lions returning to form as a national power. Still, OSU has gotten the better of the Penn State 8-2. Everyone knows just how much Ohio State has dominated Michigan in the past decade, going 9-1 against the Wolverines with the only loss being the Buckeyes’ embarrassing 2011 campaign. Two of OSU’s wins over Michigan ripped out their hearts and kept UM from a Playoff. It has been a pretty good decade for Ohio State despite the sole national title.

[captain-geewiz]

The changing of war. The Modern War.

On September 2, 1945 World War Two came to an. The ‘greatest generation’ defeated the Nazis and the imperial Japanese Empire. Now we know what Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire are but sometimes we overlook what they meant to us. Imperialism, fascism, racism, collectivism, authoritarianism, conformity, and for most of us, just plain the worst of mankind. From Japanese Internment Camps, Concentration Camps, Human Experiments, Unit 731, and Genocide these things all are topics that flood text books and create an uncomfortable feeling in readers. These kinds of things are atrocities, shameful acts of animalistic people who are just like us. Now of course, through science such as the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram experiment are ways of showing just how entire populations can be swayed into committing to these events and those happened after the war showing that these things are still capable of happening and as history is bound to do, repeat itself, it has happened; Darfur, Uganda, Rwanda, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Tibet, Ireland, Russia, Israel, Iran, and Turkey just to name a few. But what I am trying to get across is that all of these events that happened in World War Two are so grimacing and evil that no matter who one might talk to they will agree that the war needed to be fought and those powers shouldn’t ever come into existence again and how it was a great war because it stood for something so great and humanitarian. It was real good versus evil.

Now fast forward five years; the Korean War. The Cold War. Fast forward ten years; the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam. Fast forward more and we have the Gulf War, War in the Middle East. And it seems the public attention and public attitude is negative to all of these wars! Best examples come from Vietnam itself. So what has happened? Why is this? Have we shied away from bad versus good? Have we been lied to about the wars? Wars for oil when we were told it was weapons of mass destruction. Wars for the profit of a government, war is bad for business unless you’re a government right? In my opinion I don’t believe this is the answer why populations no longer support wars. Instead, I believe it is because war has changed. For all of humanity war had been marching onto a battlefield and you can see your main foe face to face. It didn’t matter if a country was large or small, they fought. In fact it didn’t even matter if you were hundreds of years behind technologically. Ask the Zulus, American Indians, American Revolutionaries, slaves in Haiti, or even Communist groups in China and Cuba. These groups in hindsight probably should have lost the war, they were the under dogs in all the wars. War though has changed. Atomic bombs probably owe us the change and we might owe them a sense of gratitude. When large powers fight it is about the destruction of nations, Nazi Germany bombing London, Soviet Union bombing Berlin, the US obliterating Nagasaki and Hiroshima. But then we see a huge change, the cold war, large super nations suddenly realized their entire country could be at risk. And throughout the cold war we saw the shift in war. No one in Moscow or DC wanted to be erased off the planet by a nuclear bomb, no. But they definitely wanted to win, so how do you do that? Pawns. Second hand countries.

In the cold war the US fought communist China and USSR by fighting communism in Cuba and Vietnam. All three countries poured their resources into the tiny country that to this day is still a developing country where eighty percent still live in poverty. And why were they so willing to do this? If Vietnam turned into the minefield that it still is today it wouldn’t effect Russia, China, or the United States. Why is that a big deal? Well what made the United States jump into super stardom following both World War One and World War Two? They were unscathed! Infrastructure was intact, factories were intact, populations were alive and not displaced. That could not be said about Europe that was ravaged by war. Modern war has changed into proxy wars. Wars where super countries who are afraid of total annihilation would rather battle it out over poor countries that have no meaning to them instead of wage it themselves. And for good reason as well, no one wants to be eradicated from the planet, especially whole nations.

So my coworker who fears more than anything, half joking in her words, that North Korea is going to bomb us I tell you it is entirely safe. North Korea lacks the allies and just basic human nourishment and wealth to wage a war against the largest military in the world. And the United States isn’t going to provoke North Korea because no one wants to see Western Washington turn into a crater. Washington itself is the eleventh best economically ranked state in the United States and is home to many military bases making it a potential target which is why I bring it up. But the United States will definitely fight major countries by sending aid and troops to attack the countries that torn between the two. And a country ravaged by war, poor in resources, isn’t going to have the means to fly a stealth bomber over the United States, or build a missile silo, no, they’ll turn to acts of terrorism and guerilla warfare. And the United States doesn’t want to waste the lives of money of its military so they’ll drone the place. For once wars can be fought without stepping a foot down on foreign soil.

But back to the original question; why has the public changed its stance on war? Is it bad that the United States picks on the little guy Syria? No. The public doesn’t approve of current wars because we are no longer fighting a resemblance of Imperialism, fascism, racism, collectivism, authoritarianism, conformity, etc. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon don’t reveal themselves in a political cartoon as the iron fist, the iron wheel, the death of millions, the evil perils of a country and government gone mad with the killing of people and ideas. War has changed so much that it has lost meaning. America’s longest war, the Afghani War, means nothing to many Americans except a waste of money and a waste of loss of life which is sad for those who died serving of course but the support for the war is bar none. No one cares, no one sees them as true villains, true animosity to mankind, true threats to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Strangely though we can think of countries who do represent those feelings. Popular countries that might come to mind here in the United States are Russia, China, North Korea, and even the United States itself. War has lost the contingency of being for a greater good for all. It has turned into pointless killings, more problems, nervous political movements, and the loss of liberties for securities. Maybe this is because in the past people were taught to believe in wars through the use of propaganda and the news. But frankly, we are much more educated and know propaganda when we see it; and not to mention the media can no longer depict other countries as racist and stereotypical comic characters.

The war of pawns is small and insignificant to a king and a queen and as such has also doubled that feeling on the citizens, in fact it is far more stretched into discern and disgust. Wars have stopped being great wars, generations have stopped being the ‘greatest.’ But the cost is, for those who can afford to fight their wars elsewhere, they stay unscathed, healthy, and wealthy, and ever ready when the super powers start their wars again.