Somehow, I think that bombing even more countries is not going to solve our current problems. It sounds almost like an alcoholic who keeps drinking to help him forget his drinking problem, which, now that that I think about it, seems rather an appropriate metaphor for the current administration.
Judging by the most recent election results, America is finally starting to wake up, so you can stop waiting for "the terrorist set a nuke off in one of are major citys".
Jones,
Pretty good comparison. I noticed yesterday that the adminstration had decided because of the vast divide between Shia' and Sunni that unification is probably out the window. U.S. rethinking Iraqi unification goal - Yahoo! News The hatred between these 2 groups would make the rift between catholics and protestents look like a argument between 2 school kids on the playground and it's been that way for 100's and 100's of years. Longer than the so-call divide between christians.
As for the election results, I'm not so sure about that just yet. As the election cycle began to heat up about a year ago we heard a lot of tough talk about everything from full tilt immediate withdrawal to impeachment of the President and even the Vice President. Oddly enough, an indictment has been drafted aka an op-ed piece.
Indicting Bush - by Elizabeth de la Vega and Tom Engelhardt However, since the election, the top democrat party leaders have not only publically stated any impeachment is off the table but it also seems the drive towards immediate withdrawal is quickly cooling off as well. Things in Washington change as fast as the political winds but this seems the direction for now.
You know it's funny that most of these same democrats clamoured into line to vote for the war and backed it and in some cases even championed it's cause and the actual war itself was a piece of cake. In that respect and some will hate to hear this but Bush was right when he said "Mission Accomplished!" That part was in fact accomplished, the war itself. What has utterly failed however is the more tenative process of occupation and democraization of a society and culture who's very internal processes are devoid of such concepts for 1000's of years. Personally I think the failures date back to post WW1 and the breaking and dividing of the old Ottoman empire by the Brits and the French. Horrible job IMO and we seem to be following the same stupid course of action.
Now some may consider some of my remarks above as anti-culturalist and even racist to some degree in that they may think I'm implying they are incapable of democracy. You are assuming I believe that democracy is the only option for any and all people. On the contary, I believe they themselves should decide and if they want another democracy or Saddam back then so be it. Who am I to tell them how to live! They've had their own systems of governance for a very long time and if they want to continue that process, then fine by me. The blunt truth is we are only interested in order to maintain open pathways to feed our drug like energy addiction. Take the oil out of play and we'd have as much interest in this region as we seem to show right now in some of the areas of Africa that are boiling over in gross acts of human tragedy.
Except for a few democrats who are attempting to hold some of their radical anti-war base in check, most democrats are talking about ramping up manpower in Iraq to qwell the violence over there. Many are hoping the likes of the Baker/Hamilton combine can bail them all out (dems and repubs) of the quicksand that we find ourselves in.
For gov't, War is it's greatest hour in which gov't can advance itself and don't kid yourself for one moment that these elected officials don't love what "in the name of war and defence" they can get away with that under peacetime conditions would never be tolerated. And wartime measures rarely if ever get repealed once the war is over. The annuls of law are loaded with such examples but the one closest to home for all is the 1942' Victory Tax Act. This was the beginning of what we have today as the federal withholding of income taxes and prior to this event, the majority of Americans paid no federal income tax. The act was designed as a temporary measure but look at your paycheck and tell me just how temporary it was? Even the British who imposed an income tax during the Napoleonic Wars repealed them after 6 years as the need and demand of the people caused it so. In our case, since WW2, we've remained in a permament state of war thus maintaining the need so to speak. In 1939' FDR's defense budget was just under $2 bil dollars but 3 years later in Jan. 42' it jumped to $50 bil. Why such a huge jump? Hint! Lend/Lease is a good start.
Do not kid yourself at all as War is truly govt's finest hour and they thrive on it. Although this piece was written in 1918' I believe it still holds it's place today for needful consideration.
Part 1 of the unfinished essay: "The State" - Antiwar.com
Lastly, on America's own war history, excepts from a book on the subject IMO worth consideration.
A Century of War - Mises Institute
Have a good weekend Jones!
