Topic: Foreign Policy
Ron Paul And An Army Of Oreos Musings on the nature of food cravings and battleships.by Scott from Oregon
(Libertarian)
Thursday, December 6, 2007
I was born in an Air Force Hospital in the early sixties, which meant my father's generation was all about Vietnam and the taming of the evil peasants from North Vietnam.
A personal injury and a bit of luck found my father out of fighter training and sent off to Jerusalem, along with his family, loaned out by the Air Force to the fledgling United Nations- an organization put together to resolve such issues as the Palestinian/Israeli conflict- where I lived and learned as infant and toddler, until the war there in 1967.
In High School, Pops tried to steer my brother and I into military life lanes, but we diverted. I traveled the world using carpentry skills as petrol, and my brother married young and produced children early.
All of this to explain where my desire to see the world came from, and how I found myself in Tokyo in the early eighties, craving Oreos and a good glass of milk.
As an American boy out in the big world, I missed my Oreos and milk and was having trouble getting that urge pacified. I am sure many of you have been there? You have a food vision, and it won't go away. The only cure for this picture in your mind is to sit down at a table and eat the vision, until sickness becomes the cure.
My plan to satiate this urge came to me by talking to a young Navy recruit who was spending a little leave time touring Tokyo in the train. He told me to come out to the base, where they had a Commissary, and he'd hook me up with Oreos.
I did just that. I traveled by train and taxi and found myself in little America. I stared in amazement at the mass of gray, American steel hulks of ships amassed and floating there. I was given a short tour and a large pile of Oreos in plastic wrappings, and I returned happily back to my wayward traveling ways, (which in those days consisted of chasing Japanese tail in and out of nightclubs and coffee shops).
That was over twenty four years ago.
I've been reading the Constitution lately. I've been following along with the debates, both Democrat and Republican. I've been watching as our government swells precariously, like those midway balloons when you squirt water into the clowns mouth, and the combined slurry of candidate promises and Constitutional relevancies brought to mind the day I greedily dipped Oreos into blackening milk. While amazed at the little American island in a sea of Japan, where one could get not only Oreos but Captain Crunch Cereal, the one thing I never questioned WAS THE COST. It never occurred to me that this enormous enterprise sitting before me in this foreign country was covered by American tax payers back home. Those enormous ships. All of the men and women working on them- maintaining them. The cooks and mechanics and radar experts and on and on.
Carpenters like myself in America were reaching into their pockets by force and threat and handing over cash so that we Americans could keep other Americans in a little America in a far away land. So that, in the end, the world could be a safe place for Democracy and other more egregious governances which we would give money to packaged as "aid" (from money taken from carpenters), so that we wouldn't have to take those big ships out of their safe harbors and open up a big can of whup-ass. Make sense?
As I think about those men and women stationed there, I think of Okinawa. I think of South Korea. I think of Germany. My mind does a head-spin as I start to conceptualize just how many little Americas there are around the world. There doesn't seem to be enough carpenters to pay for all of them, and I guess that teachers and salesmen and plumbers and taxi drivers and waitresses are also being hit up for the bucks to keep those little Americas funded.
I wonder what those bases are producing, besides fear in others, while they sit there consuming American dollars outside of America? I start imagining the amount of fuel they consume, cruising the skies and the waters of the world like vigilant sharks?
I begin to ask myself, just WHO are we afraid of out there that requires this much vigilance?
Is the world the same world that it once was? Are the lessons of WW2 still germane to the 21st century? Hasn't google and optic fiber cable changed the understandings of mankind to such a degree, that that kind of frontal vanguardism has become atavistic and hyper-paranoid?
Are we THAT afraid of North Korea, that we need to live at their doorstep at a high cost to our own citizens?
I don't think so.
One of the candidates running for president is an old fella by the name of Ron Paul. Ron Paul is suggesting that we retract much of the American military so that we can take care of America. He's suggesting that we trade with those nations we are afraid of, and get them used to being kind to us, and us to them. I know, it sounds really old fashioned doesn't it? In fact, it almost sounds Biblical.
I even think the founders of America had some notion similar to the one Ron Paul is espousing. Imagine that?
So, instead of sending soldiers everywhere around the world, we should bring them home and send travelers and traders and tourists. We should invite the same here to sample our fine way of walking shopping malls and BBQing. We should stop paying so much to demonstrate our swagger, and start demonstrating kindness and thoughtfulness instead.
In other words, we should leave North Korea's border and start sending them Oreos and Captain Crunch Cereal. And if they are really nice to us, maybe even some milk.
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2007 Scott from Oregon, all rights reserved.
Published: Thursday, December 6, 2007
Last modified: Thursday, December 6, 2007
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Posted By: Michael McDonnough
Date: 2007-12-06 15:39:12
Scott,
We are about the same age and background as far as my dad being Airforce but both me and my brother entered the services as well. We did not end up being lifers like my dad did but we did get to see from the inside of the service life perspective and travel to distant lands and watch the military spend a lot of tax payer money on saber rattling ventures during the cold war.
I have seen the huge waste that happens first hand and it is large to say the least. When I got out funny thing is one of the first jobs I had was as a carpenter. Small world aint it.
Certainly the communications technology we have today has changed the entire dynamic of military and government. Security is best served by being a good friend to people in other nations and trading with people and traveling like Ron Paul has said. It is the way many of us do our business and we should not accept anything less from our government.
Walk softly, but carry a big stick, along with some oreos. Ron Paul would have us walk softly. We have a big stick whenever we need it.
Being that Americans are armed to the teeth, and we have the fastest deploying most technologicly advanced military in the world, it is hard to imagine that anyone could take us on. It would only piss us off and as 'the japs' once said, 'there would be a gun barrel behind every blade of grass' if anyone tried to invade our shores.
We can achieve much more with milk and cookies than we can with needless wars.
I wonder how Switzerland has managed all these many years? Don't the terrorists hate their freedom and wealth too? Sweden? Canada? Come to think of it, could someone enlighten me as to what countries other than France, England, and the States have bases in everyone elses back yard. I think this is worth knowing and may either totaly discredit or enforce our argument
This is Leanne's Question: "Come to think of it, could someone enlighten me as to what countries other than France, England, and the States have bases in everyone elses back yard. I think this is worth knowing and may either totaly discredit or enforce our argument."
Well Leanne there are two others: Russia but not so much anymore, but give the new Putin time and he will fix this, and China which is our real competitor in world Empire who has either vassals or bases everwhere, even in our once beloved Pamama Canal via a holding company who now dominates there.
Yea, what a group. Dead are Britian and France. Dieing is the US. Coming back from the dead like a zombie is Russia and China is the new bully on the block who at least in words, as of now, wants to knock everyone's block off.
The political term is hedgemony, or the desire to couquer a region or the world.
I think we need a combination platter of milk and cookies along with some expressed liberty toward these countries we aim to help. Make it known that we will be peaceful but that they are going to have to stand up for themselves. If we are peaceful and set that good example to the world, they will prefer that to Chinese or Russian or Islamic caliphate hegemony. They will have a need to have their own militaries to defend themselves against the biggies. Capitalist prosperity will be enjoyed as an alternative to communism or dictatorship.
There may be some problem with a world where the US is not intervening, but if people around the world win their own liberty they will relish it that much more. Could take 100 years for everything to work itself out and we'll all be long gone barring medical advancements but it would be worth it. The present course is not sustainable. If they want to spend some money on private security militaries with US know-how, let them. But that should be at their cost, not ours.
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2007 Scott from Oregon, all rights reserved.