A headline in this morning’s Melbourne The Age newspaper ran, “Not a single call or email”. It was a piece bemoaning Australia’s lack of enthusiasm for their politicians’ announcement the day before of the country’s latest $20 billion job protection program in light of the economic hardships borne by Covid-19. Apparently, no one had called their local representative to say thanks.

I can’t see why this comes as a surprise. All you need do is see that our politicians have been spoiled by the fall of Communism in the 1980s and no longer understand the concept of “war”.

Yet, here we are as a world, still involved in an almost 20-year Global War on Terror, which only two years ago saw the most unbelievable horrors unfold in the gassing of civilians in Syria. Don’t you think it’s strange there was no prolonged outrage?

Western governments and their financial markets have basically never been on a war footing. Anyone remember the greed of the Global Financial Crisis at the height of the fighting in Iraq? Just this past week, the Nasdaq set a record run while the world staggered in recession.

So, ask the person in the street what they’re thinking about when it comes to Covid-19—a pandemic only four months old—and they’ll tell you today, they are simply sick and tired.

They want it over. They’ve been in combat way too long and they’re close to being spent.

That’s why they’re not applauding governments who measure themselves by spreadsheets of GDP, GNP, CPI and fiscal deficits. They only want their governments to take on a stance of war—and finally win. Yes, the public is war weary.

In the West while we’ve seen despicable acts of terror unfold, we have not endured as our counterparts did in 1914-18 or 1939-45 the abject inhumanity of millions dying. Yet, Covid-19 has made it clear that we have been living a similar dread each morning as we pull ourselves out of bed.

The fact is, rather than worrying about a loved one’s fate on a faraway battlefield or whether bombers will blitz our suburbs today or whether rations will be available at the store this afternoon—our ultimate question remains the same:

When will this bloody war be over?

Unlike living in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem during the suicide bombing era, Egypt during its failed Arab Spring, Ukraine during its Orange Revolution, China during its Tiananmen terror, or indeed Hong Kong during its current fight for democracy—we, the citizens of the free nations in the West have been able to glimpse ourselves under biological siege.

And we don’t like it.

So, we simply want our politicians to pull themselves away from their groupthink bubbles and understand that in this 0% interest rate environment, where stock markets are rocketing beyond all logic, and where a man who owns Amazon can make USD $13 billion before going to bed in a single day while his country approaches $27 trillion in national debt—that we don’t give a damn about budget surpluses or “Treasurer of the Year” awards.

We just want to defeat this virus now.

Was Covid-19 born from the Global War on Terror? Was it born from the machinations of new superpowers on the rise? Was it merely an epidemiological freak of bad luck?

Someone has the answers. And if you damn well want to earn your politician’s pensions, you’d better get your job done. The people have been at war for two decades without your lead—dear presidents, governors and prime ministers.

Win it. Cure it. This cable TV show has had its run.

© 2020 Adam Parker.