When I was in the Air Force a million years ago, we routinely trained for a range of wartime scenarios.

Chemical warfare. Nuclear. Biological. We’d go round-the-clock for a few days every month, never knowing what they were going to throw at us. We’d even train for civilian casualties—setting up field hospitals, the whole nine yards. 12-hour shifts in full chem or hazmat gear–all four years I served active duty and three others in the National Guard.

It was the mid-80s when war was cold, and yet we were prepared for every scenario the Department of Defense could conjure that the Russians might employ against us.

The Department of Defense is a government agency.

The US Government is *absolutely* supposed to have contingency plans for things like #COVID19.

The “no one saw this coming” line is complete bullshit.

Especially when anyone with an internet connection could literally watch it marching all the way from Asia since January.

I’m not usually one for nostalgia, but America has changed. Because there was once a time when our President would never announce that 100,000 to 200,000 American deaths, as a result of a deadly virus he mishandled, was in any way a “good job.” And instead he would take full responsibility for when things got tough.

***

Jim

Courage to Take Control
the men in the trees

Jim Mitchem

Writer. Father to daughters. Husband. Ad man. Raised by wolves. @jmitchem on twitter. First novel, Minor King, out now.

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