Why Tom Brady is the ideal American

Whether it’s winning wars or winning Super Bowls – a primary component of the American ethos is doing ‘whatever it takes’ to win.

Dick Nixon embodied this admirable trait when he did whatever it took to win the Presidency (though it subsequently cost him – but that’s politics I suppose). He also refused to give up during the Vietnam War and bombed the hell out of Cambodia and Laos just to prove a point.

A more modern example would be the Global War on Terror and George W. Bush’s vow to do ‘whatever it takes’ to win – even shitting upon the very tenants of what makes America America through the now exposed NSA surveillance program and a number of other draconian measures.

Extending this even further, we’ve rationalized torture, drone strikes on American citizens, and a whole host of other dystopian projects that would make even Goebbels feel uneasy.

But back to Tom Brady. I don’t know what the truth is – whether he had a hand in deflating footballs for an unfair advantage or not – but if he did, then that would make him a prime example of what it means to be an ideal American by embodying the urge to commit to do ‘whatever it takes’ to be a winner. Except in his case – it has seemed to work.

On the Firebombing of Tokyo

Must Read: The Firebombing of Tokyo: Seventy years ago today, the United States needlessly killed almost 100,000 people in a single air raid over Tokyo.

“Killing Japanese didn’t bother me very much at that time . . . I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.” - Gen. Curtis LeMay

As Howard Zinn put it in his final speech before he died:

Gen. Curtis LeMay

"This idea of good wars helps justify other wars which are obviously awful, obviously evil. And though they’re obviously awful — I’m talking about Vietnam, I’m talking about Iraq, I’m talking about Afghanistan, I’m talking about Panama, I’m talking about Grenada, one of our most heroic of wars — the fact that you can have the historic experience of good wars creates a basis for believing, well, you know, there’s such a thing as a good war, and maybe you can find, oh, parallels between the good wars and this war, even though you don’t understand this war.

But, oh, yes, the parallels. Saddam Hussein is Hitler. That makes it clear. We have to fight against him. To not fight in the war means surrender, like Munich. There are all the analogies. . . .You compare something to World War II, you immediately infuse it with goodness."

Above all, don't lie to yourself.

"The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself..." - The Brothers Karamazov