The world took a terrible turn for the worst this week.

The terrorist attack that shocked Israel turned a night of dancing and revelry on a kibbutz into murder, blood and civilian hostage-taking. The usual code of war meant nothing in the coordinated air, sea and land assault. Women and children were brutalized as they became casualties. A 75-year-old peace activist was taken.

Israel quickly declared war on Hamas, the Iran-backed terrorist organization based in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, counting at least 1,200 deaths of citizens and visitors so far. Palestinian deaths are about 700.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s army and intelligence elite suffered a blow to their tough reputation and vowed a merciless reprisal.

“A complete siege” of the Gaza Strip means no food, water and electricity will be let in to supply 2 million residents already under blockade. That seems to violate human rights.

God only knows how it will end.

Meanwhile, our own House is not in order.

There is no Speaker since Republican Kevin McCarthy just got deposed in a humiliating roll call vote of 426 members in the House chamber. Eight hard-Right Republicans voted against him in a historic ouster.

The House of Representatives has its hands tied without a Speaker, which means another drama lies ahead for choosing one. The House Republicans hold a bare majority. Yet they cannot govern themselves, much less a country that reflects the same stark political divide.

Nothing like this has ever happened before, lest you think this is politics as usual. To have nobody home in the House during a foreign policy crisis is politics as unusual. It’s inexcusable.

To hear Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., eloquently lament the harm and grief in Israel is to realize how much we lost when the callow, shallow McCarthy took over the Speaker’s gavel in January.

Never a hair out of place, California Kevin, but not much inside his pretty head.

The Senate is out of town, AWOL, this week. Like the House, it’s practically paralyzed to rise to the aid of Israel, our staunch ally.

The Senate got its regular homework done, to be fair, unlike the hapless House. But one Republican senator, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, is holding up hundreds of Pentagon promotions. Another administration foe, Rand Paul of Kentucky, is running interference on 60 State Department nominations.

Oh, and we have no American ambassador to Israel.

Tuberville and Paul do this because they can. One senator can block a vote to advance presidential appointments. That’s inconvenient in normal times. Now it’s a travesty. That “quaint” Senate custom has got to go.

Tuberville, just a football coach by trade, waged his obstruction for months over Pentagon policy on reproductive rights. Paul is fighting a lost battle over COVID-19 policy. They have proved impervious to pressure. Statesmen they are not.

Let’s say we have a pretty good president, which we do. His name is Joe Biden, and he won the 2020 election. But he can’t do it all alone. A stable Congress is essential to running the nation in war and peace.

War is all around us — in Ukraine, Israel and even danger within. The Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol almost took democracy hostage. The 30,000 in the violent throng were Americans.

Ukraine’s military aid will likely be jeopardized with Israel and the Middle East minefield front and center of our television screens — and congressional concern.

Isn’t that the way we like war? Like a football game.

Think of these new scenes as variations on a theme. The whole 21st century is a flop so far. If it was a Broadway show, it would have closed by now.

I’ll have more to say on this, but the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in 2000 (giving the tied election to George W. Bush) set the stage for Sept. 11 and two long lost wars of aggression.

Nineteen men (15 Saudi) defeated our defenses and smashed the World Trade towers to the ground. The Pentagon took a palpable hit.

Four years later, on the mighty Mississippi River, New Orleans wept while Washington slept through Hurricane Katrina.

History flows like a river and one tragedy often leads to another round the bend.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit Creators.com.

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