It's that time of the year. Time for sequels. Soon there will be a new Transformers movie, or Avengers movie, or some other Gawd awful monstrosity with the same predictable plot, but with a bigger budget and more explosions.
Why does Hollywood keep churning out this barely watchable garbage? Because that is what we want. We yearn for crappy sameness.

Hollywood has become sensational at predicting what its audiences want to see. And, ironically, for that very reason, it's become better at making relentlessly average movies.

This is a consumer-driven economy, and the customer is always right. Which is all fine and dandy when it comes to movies. As far as I'm concerned Hollywood could generate nothing but fart joke movies, if that is what the people want. I'll find something else to do with my time.
The problem is that the "customer is always right" goes beyond just movies and TV and has now invaded presidential politics.

“The level of dialogue on national security issues would embarrass a middle schooler,” Gates said of the Republican contenders at a Politico Playbook event in Washington on Monday. “People are out there making threats and promises that are totally unrealistic, totally unattainable. Either they really believe what they’re saying or they’re cynical and opportunistic and, in a way, you hope it’s the latter, because God forbid they actually believe some of the things that they’re saying.”...
“In some cases, the things they’re saying they’re going to do are unconstitutional or merely against the law and others are, from a budgetary standpoint, inconceivable, and so it seems to be that the press has not hammered hard enough and been relentless in saying, ‘How the hell are you going to do that?’

It's hard to say if our current crop of presidential candidates really believe the batshit-crazy stuff they are spewing at the cameras, but when even Donald Trump has to tell the war hawks to tone it down then something is seriously wrong with American politics.
Even the leading Democratic candidate thinks that Gaddafi being sodomized to death with a bayonet is hilarious.

Do you know what? Most Americans are OK with that.
Large majorities of Americans want those wars. "Kicking Ass" is a comprehensive foreign policy to the developmentally-arrested voting public. It's as if the foreign policy of the country is being created by the kids from Lord of the Flies.
Blood and carnage are A.O.K. with us, because real life killing people in wars is just like video games, including the killing of children.

And just like any successful, money-making, America consumer product, there will be endless, big-budget sequels and spin-offs.
It all starts with the Iraq War Franchise.
The Iraq War I: Desert Storm was a HUGE success. We killed a bunch of bad guys while our allies picked up the tab. However, the Main Character Bad Guy remained alive, which set up the Big Sequel.
Just like Rocky II, the plot of Iraq War II: Now it's Personal was pretty much the same except this time Rocky won and the Main Character Bad Guy was vanquished. It also cost a whole lot more, in dollars and lives, but that's what you expect from a sequel.

Because the customer is always right, we started Iraq War III: Bombs of Peace a little over a year ago and the plot twist is that the New Bad Guy is even more evil than the Old Bad Guy. Who could have saw that one coming?!? Those screen-writers are brilliant, I tell ya!
And like Detective McClane in the Die Hard series, each sequel involves bigger explosions. 23,144 explosions in 2015 alone, to be exact. And only six dead civilians! That's some serious sharp-shooting that you won't find outside of a Hollywood action movie.
But wait! There's another plot twist. Remember Afghan War: Graveyard of Empires? Believe it or not, the show is still live after 15 years even though Americans had long since forgotten about it. Well the Original Bad Guys from that show, al-Qaeda, have been brought back in a crossover show in Iraq War III, and they are now our allies against ISIS that we can't trust.
I know, I know. It's the plot to Blade II minus the crossover, but its still a great attempt at keeping the franchise fresh with the fans.

Any show that is pulling in those sorts of ratings deserves a spin-off, and that spin-off is Libya.
Libya War 1.0: How Hillary Got Her Groove was a huge success. The bad guy died and not a single American good guy was killed. You couldn't have written a more predictable script.
Something that smooth deserves a sequel, which is what Hollywood/Washington is gearing up to give us just in time for sweeps week.

“It’s fair to say that we’re looking to take decisive military action against ISIL in conjunction with the political process” in Libya, [Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph] Dunford said. “The president has made clear that we have the authority to use military force.”

Damn Straight! We can never get enough ass-kickin'.

The New York Times editorial page, which supported the original bombing of Libya, yesterday labeled plans for the new bombing campaign “deeply troubling,” explaining: “A new military intervention in Libya would represent a significant progression of a war that could easily spread to other countries on the continent.”

Ya Buddy! That sounds like we are setting up a new franchise to me. The Libyan War Franchise. In 3D with Dolby sound so you hear the individual bodies being ripped apart with our bombs.
What's more, we're bringing back all your favorite Bad Guys with crossovers from both Afghan War and Iraq War III! It's gonna be a Blockbuster!

In particular, “this significant escalation is being planned without a meaningful debate in Congress about the merits and risks of a military campaign that is expected to include airstrikes and raids by elite American troops” (the original Libya bombing not only took place without Congressional approval, but was ordered by Obama after Congress rejected such authorization).

"Meaningful debate"?? That sounds like pointy-headed intellectual jibber-jabber. Those nerds need to get their heads flushed.

Now if there were any adults in the news rooms and presidential debates, which there obviously aren't, that adult might want to ask a few questions. Like:

The War on Terror: Nearly 15 years after this “war” was launched by George W. Bush, why hasn’t “the most powerful military in the world,” “the finest fighting force in the history of the world” won it? Why isn’t victory anywhere in sight?

Assassination: Now that the United States has normalized assassination as an instrument of policy, how well is it working? What are its benefits and costs?

Nuclear Weapons: Today, more than 70 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, what purpose do nukes serve? How many nuclear weapons and delivery systems does the United States actually need?

Energy Security: Given the availability of abundant oil and natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere and the potential future abundance of alternative energy systems, why should the Persian Gulf continue to qualify as a vital U.S. national security interest?

Good thing those adults aren't there. Otherwise there wouldn't be nearly enough Bad Guys (and people that sort of look like Bad Guys) exploding.
If the adults were making the decisions, they would see that any war in which neither the enemy nor victory can be clearly defined is complete insanity. They would recognize our drone program as nothing more than a global assassination program. They would clearly see that everywhere we've bombed in the last 15 years is much worse today, and that if we continue down this path then we face total bankruptcy and ruin as a nation.

But the adults have left the building, so roll the film, start dropping bombs, and keep the checkbook handy because this one is going to be expensive.