The Guns of October.

If you've ever read The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman,  this government showdown sounds really familiar.

Before WWI, nobody really thought they'd go to war, but they kept pushing in that direction anyway.
There was a spirit of "We'll defeat them with our esprit de corp."  A belief that the side with the strongest commitment would win.

Enough time had passed between wars that most of the young people had forgotten what it was like.

 Bullets and cannons and gas quickly made esprit de corp a dangerous thing to depend upon.


I know that whenever I've tipped over into disaster in my own life, it wasn't because one thing happened -- it was usually a series of smaller mistakes that put me on the edge of the cliff, and made me vulnerable when the big one came along.

Just saying.  We're playing with fire.

What's really disheartening, though, is even if we escape it this time -- they seem determined to use the same tactics next time -- and the next -- and the next. 

So disaster is inevitable if you keep pushing the boundaries.