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Lets see what I can do for a preamble.
Starting in 1948 there was this thing called the Cold War. We did
not have the option of getting off of a war time economy until 1991. We
distorted the entire economy in the process. By 1995 it was absolutely safe
to start getting off a war economy. A few years transitioning to a
minimalist military, get those Cold War ideas out of our heads and get back
to treating all nations as equals, dissolve NATO on it 50th anniversary for a
job well done and get back to all the good things in life.
But there are retards, mainly most over 50 as I am, who can't
imagine a world without a global confrontation and without constant war or
threat of war and have no interest in letting it happen.
I was young, idealistic and the job paid well. But it did not take
long to learn the old-timers, WWII vets, remembered what it was like to have
a world without constant war and threat of war. They had a good point. This
was a continuation as it was the continuation of WWII. And the constant
threat of MAD and as we have learned several times it almost happened by
accident.
In the process of this Cold War we gave away all of our
manufacturing edge and much of our industrial exports. We gave it away
because the best talent went to military R&D. Before that happened in a few
years we got CB radios cheaper than their antennas. All of this because DOD
was taking the best talent because it paid whatever it cost for the best.
When the best talent was for better tanks the lesser talent responded to
Japanese cars. We can play games of particular examples but it happened in
this time frame without any other obvious cause. You can't have the best
tanks in the world and not produce the best cars without some kind of
problem with talent. And not just engineers. The assembly line workers for
tanks have to meet the much higher standards of DOD so they assembled tanks
not Fords.
After 1991 was the time to start ending US bases around the world
particularly in Europe. All the troops but for a few naval bases should have
been home by 1998 or maybe 2000. Instead bases have increased and expanded.
Enough preamble
Instead of getting back to a peace time economy and military Dems and
Reps, Clinton and Bush, both continued the military without regard to a
world at peace with no credible threat to us. Clinton bombed Iraq for no
reason and he bombed Kosovo for no reason. He sent troops into Kosovo for no
reason and called nation building. Bush campaigned against nation building
but never withdrew from Kosovo and continued nation building. He continued
to bomb Iraq before the war, invaded and is now nation building. He bombed
and invaded Afghanistan and engaged in nation building.
Let me ask why we spent trillions of dollars over 45 years to win
the Cold War and then continue after winning it as though it were still in
progress. It leads the conspiracy theorists to conclude the Cold War was
desired not required.
Before the Iraq war let me point out bin Laden was in fact based in
Pakistan not Afghanistan was Afghanistan was attacked. And in fact the most
significant accomplishment of that war outside of Afghanistan was returning
it to an opium export based economy.
As to Iraq lets be personal first.
In round numbers 2000 Americans dead and 20,000 wounded. And that
high ratio is because of trauma treatment and number juggling. By any
rational measure another 3000 died outside of Iraq of wounds in Iraq. DOD
only reports deaths in Iraq and they mean exactly what they say when they
say deaths in Iraq.
Is all of Iraq worth one American life? Yes or no is the only
answer. I say no.
All of the "threat to the US" and "threat to the region" and the
Niger forgery BS has been exposed.
And as we are seeing if we read serious reports from Iraq it may
gain some weak semblance of democracy where no one can vote for any person
but civil rights has been set back to pre-Hussein days for women and
non-Muslims. Iraqis who have suffered both say the torture by the Americans
is worse than under Hussein. How many American lives is this worth?
And to pretend to be a whining liberal how many Iraqi dead is it
worth? The only independent audit says over 100,000 Iraqis dead. And that is
only the civilians, not the patriotic members of the Iraqi army who died
defending their country. The US said that was nonsense but it also says it
does not count bodies so it cannot know if 100,000 is wrong. Nor has the US
presented any credible basis for saying 100,000 is wrong. So the only number
which stands is 100,000. (There is no estimate on the maimed.
So is the current mess in Iraq worth 100,000 Iraqi dead on top of
2000+ American dead?
Going passed Afghanistan and Iraq
What in the hell does this have to do with the end of the Cold War
and return to peace we all had as a goal from 1941 to the end of the Cold
War? Why are we letting this misappropriation of the Cold War be used for
things which have nothing to do with it? When did we sign on for this? When
was it debated? When was it a matter between candidates? I don't remember
it.
I do know when the conquest of Iraq started 70% of Americans
believed Iraq was behind 9/11 and Bush used that for war rather than
dispelling it.
We all worked to end the entire threat of war for 45 years. We, as a
nation, all gave away most of our export manufacturing base to win the Cold
War. Some of us spent 20 years to find political betrayal after winning.
Some of us considered ourselves conservatives and found that
conservatives in both Congress and the White House want to deficit spend,
expand government power and start criminal wars of aggression. We find a
party against nation buildings loves to screw up trying to nation build.
This is the Republican party which used to remind us all the wars of the
20th century were started by Democrat presidents.
We find ourselves in a situation where it is only the goodwill of
the government which stands between us and a police state. Anyone declared
a terrorist can disappear into a government prison without recourse. It is
only goodwill which we falsely assume means we cannot be declared terrorists
if not terrorists. There nothing stopping it and there is no recourse,
period.
You can trust in the ultimate responsible action of the Supreme
Court if you wish but between arrest and an SC hearing is a minimum of four
years. It is your four year gamble. Remember that is a high school dropout,
street punk. petty criminal named Padilla the gov declared is a terrorist
because he was going to set off a dirty nuke bomb. If that is credible
anything is credible.
This nonsense leaves us with only goodwill.
Bush said this war will not be won in our lifetimes. Cheney said it
will not be won in our grandchildren's lifetime. That is at least 60 years
of goodwill to hope tax protesters will not be declared terrorists.
How can that happen? It has already happened by invoking the
9/11-based exceptions in the law by declaring drug dealing is terrorism. Any
form of suspected money laundering is now terrorism for the purposes of the
criminal investigation meaning the protections of law are gone.
It is not a matter of proving it. It only requires suspecting it to
suspend all laws. There is nothing in the terrorism laws which say "if not
found to be terrorism related it is inadmissible." It exempts the
investigation only. It says nothing about what can be done with the results
of the investigation.
We have an undeclared war. If there is a real war those who outed
Plame will be charged with treason because she was working to prevent the
proliferation of WMDs, outing her ended that effort, and that is simple aid
and comfort to the enemy in time of war. It is not a matter of the tortuous
law regarding outing a CIA agent. This is the litmus test of this being a
real war. If the charge is not treason then there is no justification for
all the 9/11 laws.
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