Sep 29 2007

Never-ending war

Should we start getting used to those words?  Is there a way to fight the wave that seems to have overcome our foreign policy, starting a number of decades ago, but looking more and more like the offerings of nearly all republicans, too many Democrats and an unbelievable amount of our own Presidential candidates.


With such an overwhelming percentage of the American population being against any more of Iraq than is necessary to get our troops out, with no feasible or credible reason do be chest thumping at Iran and a resolution that overwhelmingly passed the Senate yesterday that all but dared Bush and Cheney to take military action against Iran, what else can one think?

I know that I don’t want to see this happen.  And I know that many, MANY others in this country don’t want to see this either.  However, our “leading candidates in a very strong field” (1) won’t commit to fully leaving Iraq, (2) have mentioned another 4 or 5 years of this waste of money and lives and (3) have no problem playing into a right wing and republican frame about national security, the situation in Iraq and the absolute insanity that would be an attack on Iran.  So what does that give us? 


Well, it gives us options like Dodd, who is the best candidate nobody has ever heard of.  And that is the problem.


There is absolutely no end in sight for this occupation of Iraq.  There isn’t even pretending anymore.  Hell, even Friedman said that there shouldn’t be anymore Friedman Units.  When did 50,000 troops for “the foreseeable future” become the bar?  Oh, and what about Afghanistan and Pakistan – the two countries (other than Saudi Arabia) that we should be concerned with?  Or a man named Osama bin-somethingorother?


We elected a whole bunch of Democrats who promised to get us to a point where there is less war, not more.  And “doing all you can” is not nearly good enough, or honest.  We need leaders that will be strong and bold and do the right thing – taking actions and not the status quo.  We need fighters.  What happened to the “new Congress in town”? 


There is very little room for excuses when it comes to risking Americans’ lives.  There is no excuse when that responsibility is abrogated for no reason that can be explained logically and factually without being purely political.  This country is already bogged down in two occupations, has an unimaginable amount of debt, the housing market is crashing and the military-industrial complex keeps chugging along.


All that doesn’t even consider the amount of major problems that are facing the majority of the people in this country.  Spending nearly all of our money, lives and effort on meaningless wars that are failing miserably is insane.  Yet, all we are given is a date of 2013 and tens of thousands of troops in Iraq for who knows how long.  And what now looks like 4 days wasted for the condemnation of a few words and ads. 


Iraq is bad enough.  Actually, words can no longer describe what Iraq actually “is”.  And now, suddenly, the Senate has put Iran “on the table”?  By a large margin, I might add.  How is this anything BUT tacit approval for more aggressive action in further provoking an all out holy war in the Middle East. 


This Lieberman/Kyl Amendment was a very dangerous one.  And now, whatever unfolds in the Middle East will be hung around the necks of anyone who voted for this amendment.  Or fell into the right wing frame on foreign policy and national security.  Or failed to take bold action and a leadership role in doing everything possible to diffuse and prevent something with implications far exceeding any measurable level of arrogance and stupidity.


We are heading for never-ending war.  An economy based on war.  Outsourced war, so few profit greatly from it.  Do we want to continue this policy?  And how can we even stop this from continuing to unfold before us?  Lives ending too soon and needlessly. 


Is there anyone bold enough to stop it, and enough of a leader to step up at this crucial time in history?


We can’t afford not to have one.

11 comments

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    • clammyc on September 29, 2007 at 03:14
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    • #

    in orange

  2. I begin to think we need a lucky break.

    You say:

    Is there anyone bold enough to stop it, and enough of a leader to step up at this crucial time in history?

    Frankly, I don’t see one. Do you?

    We need a lucky break, and that just sucks gigantic coconuts.

    Now, this I will say. The war will not be never-ending. We cannot afford a never-ending war. We have too few troops and too little money left available on the good old National Credit Card to wage never-ending war.

    In the mean time, until we run out of either cash or troops, I repeat, we may need that damn lucky break.

  3. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any on the horizon.  They were fooled by Bush once, then showed that they’ve learned absolutely nothing & just got suckered by Kyl/Lieberman.  They don’t even wonder why Kyl/Lieberman was brought up at this time, or how it can be used:  Shocker–The Base that Could Spark Iran conflict. It’s so depressing to be “represented” by total clueless idiots. 

  4. going to show up before everything is  broken beyond Vietnam Fubar?  What is left of the military is going to be what the next Democratic President is going to have to deal with and work with.  If I were that President I could end up very very chapped all to hell given many very possible scenarios that can  easily play out in my eight years!  Wakey wakey Democrats……that isn’t the fat off their souls frying anymore that you smell….that’s what’s left of their wits and asses!

    • documel on September 29, 2007 at 15:21
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    All Dem wannabes should respond about troops in Iraq thusly; if there are still troops there at the end of 2009, I pledge to not seek re-election because I have failed.

  6. No threats to us, no terrorists, no jihad just people who happen to be Arabs, Islamic and live on top of OIL. The ‘leaders’ past present and  future are going to continue this as it’s in the ‘interests’ of their bosses, the real ‘leaders’. As in Viet Nam, no one inside the machine will step up and stop it, because they created it. It won’t stop until the people themselves get sick of killing and carnage and demand that these criminals be removed. This time it’s worse because the make believe has been broadcast far and wide and people do not wish to see what’s being done in the name of security. Do not want to endanger their life styles, their entitlement to others resources and think it’s a game we should win. No candidate who is not part of this will win. It’s rigged and we all go along with their myth. 

  7. “WAR is a racket. It always has been.

    It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

    A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.”

    From War is a Racket (1935) by Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC (Ret.)

    While we may not be able to express it as succinctly, we all understand what Maj. Gen. Butler is talking about. What we need is a solution. Perhaps we should see what he recommends:

    “Well, it’s a racket, all right.

    A few profit – and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can’t end it by disarmament conferences. You can’t eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can’t wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

    The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation – it must conscript capital and industry and labor.

    Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted – to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

    Let the workers in these plants get the same wages – all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers –

    yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders – everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches!

    Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors pay half of their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds.

    Why shouldn’t they?

    They aren’t running any risk of being killed or of having their bodies mangled or their minds shattered. They aren’t sleeping in muddy trenches. They aren’t hungry. The soldiers are!

    Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to think it over and you will find, by that time, there will be no war. That will smash the war racket – that and nothing else.”

    ibid

    (emphasis mine)

    The references to conscription and $30-a-month soldier wage are, of course, out of date. But, I think the idea may still holds water, if revised for our times.

    Now who do we have to bribe to make it happen?

    If you’re interested, you can read the whole thing here.

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