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Published: Friday, October 31, 2008
Last modified: Friday, October 31, 2008
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: daddysteve
Date: 2008-10-31 14:45:14
Libertarian?
Posted By: Steve
Date: 2008-10-31 17:21:51
Yes he is a libertarian, that is why he is backing a candidate that wants to militarily invade and occupy other countries. He also is not at all disturbed to have this candidate backed by a creationist who would remove the teaching of science from the schools.
Posted By: chichemo
Date: 2008-10-31 17:39:05
Good article, thumbs up!
From another (less critical) Libertarian.
Don, you live in the real world, and it shows. Thanks, and
Peace
Posted By: Republicae
Date: 2008-11-01 10:38:59
I wish to take issue with the above comment in your article. First, it appears that you are confusing military strength with proper foreign policy. Our military is the largest, most technologically advanced systems in the history of the world, the most extreme in expense and far outstrips every other military power on earth. Indeed, our military expenditures are far greater than the next 100 countries combined.
There is however, a question that must be raised on a number of fronts concerning the level of spending compared to military efficiency and strategy, and how those factors are influenced by the overt level of expenditures that we are allowed to know about. Concerning extreme cuts in the military, that has precious little to do with emblazoning the Muslim world against us; quite to the contrary, our foreign policy has accomplished that feat for decades now. I remember traveling throughout the Arab world during the 50s and 60s, our foreign policy at that time was very different and with few exceptions Americans and America was either warmly or relatively welcomed in that region of the world. What changed it?
There are some very distinct positions and actions that this government took to cause a complete turn-a-round in the attitude of the peoples of that region. We backed dictatorships that grew increasingly oppressive of their people and greedy for American Dollars. Let’s face it, our leaders have made some extremely bad calls when it comes to interventionist strategy around the world, beginning in the 1880s, then again in WWI when both sides of that conflict were drained of resources and ready to sue for peace; yet we entered that war and transformed the entire balance of power within the entire world. With the allied victory of WWI, the entire makeup of the Middle-East was morphed into a mixture of ethnic and tribal groups herded into artificially manufactured borders upon the break-up of the already dying Ottoman Empire.
It might surprise you to know that, in one way or another, our government has intervened or interfered in the affairs of Iraq, for instance, for the last 87 years and what has it gotten us? In fact, over the last 110 years this country has intervened in the affairs of over 200 countries with questionable results. Today, we are still living with the consequences of actions take in during WWI; the Treaty of Versailles was the primary motivation for the rise of an unknown artist named Hitler. While there is always room for conjecture, the likelihood of Hitler ever being able to gain power would have been slim to none had there been a suit for peace during WWI instead of a hard victory by the allies with the “last-minute” help of U.S. intervention into the war. In fact, there are even questions as to whether WWII could have occurred in the manner in which it did if WWI had ended through a peace-suit.
If you read about the events leading up to the Iranian Hostage Crisis, then you will see that the entire episode had nothing to do with military cuts in the Carter Administration. In fact, the Carter Administration was dealing with the Ayatollah Khomeini long before he left Paris once our “leaders” had made the decision to abandon the Shah. Of course, the Iranian people and their popular leaders never forgot our interventions in their affairs a couple of decades earlier.
Can we ignore the responsibility for the actions taken by our government over the years? Can we simply brush it under the proverbial rug because we want to appear “Patriotic”? Personally, I don’t think so, particularly because it appears that many of the actions taken by this government makes them culpable for the dangers we now face in this very dangerous world, much of which has been our own creation. They are responsible for protecting this country that means more than just flexing our military muscle around the world, it means making sound decisions that will protect us and it means to have the foresight to know what the consequences of their actions might be in the future.
We have entrusted this government to use the very best discernment in every policy, but it appears that not only do they not use wisdom, but at times our own government doesn’t seem to know what its agencies are actually doing around the world. We have placed a lot of trust in these people because they are “qualified” they are “experts”, but from what I see I would call them idiots, traitors, bumbling fools that are leading this country toward disaster.
So, today our military is not only massive, but extremely inefficient, wasteful beyond belief, spread out far too thin to be a deterrent. Our military’s primary mission is to DEFEND this country and this country alone. Yet, we are in over 130 countries, spread out in over 700 bases. The GAO stated in their latest report that by 2010 this country will no longer be able to conduct its normal affairs, it simply cannot afford its own mass, the global empire it has sought to construct over the last 110 years. We will be forced, by economic pressure to change everything we now consider to be in our best interest. This “empire” is coming down, it can either be done through a very comprehensive and rational plan or it will be done as this government approaches effective bankruptcy.
Posted By: Master C
Date: 2008-11-01 13:55:05
Dear Don,
Just let me alert you that there are some long-winded buffaloes on this website who are just looking for people to pay attention to them. They dictate HISTORY like they know the ONLY REAL VERSION of it, and confuse many facts either out of senility or deliberate malice to make their points look authoritative. I'm not sure exactly which it is, yet.
So, don't feel offended if someone writes a very loooooooong harangue that criticizes your article. It's just someone hoping that they don't lose their irrelevance before they lose their ability to type.
They say even a monkey typing on a keyboard, given an infinite amount of time, could produce a work of readable quality. I guess some people just have an infinite amount of time.
Master C
Posted By: Republicae
Date: 2008-11-01 16:29:06
Master C, come now, don't you have something of value to say in any comment you make? Thus far, it appears that you, your articles and even your attempt at criticism rarely reaches the middle school level...to think that you claim to have attended college.