I must confess that, after listening to President Obama‘s speech regarding the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan, I am confused.
We haven’t won a land war since World War II, but we seem to have some sort of perverted need to keep beating our heads against the proverbial brick wall hoping that an overwhelmingly decisive victory is yet to be ours. How can that be?
The Korean War resulted in a stalemate with a permanently divided country as the result. God only knows how much it has cost the American taxpayer to maintain a standing army for what must be the world’s longest staring contest in history. For what?
Vietnam? Well, we all know how that turned out and the sheer folly behind that debacle. How many American lives were lost on that one and for what?
Then there was the Iraq War. Ah, yes. Waged on totally false pretenses so a couple of sociopaths, who avoided military service because of wealth and influence, could play war with the lives of real heroes in a pathetic attempt to sanitize their cowardly images, and delude themselves into believing that, in the end, they really were war heroes. Meanwhile, the nation still clings tenaciously to the mantra that it was all done to “keep us safe,” and to “protect our freedoms.” I can’t quite figure out who is the most to be pitied; those who lied us into the war or those who actually believed we were under threat from a nation with which we were not at war.
Now, we are once again facing up to a struggle to “protect our freedoms” in Afghanistan. This is a place that has been over-run by ambitious conquerors going back to Genghis Khan, none of whom was victorious. I don’t hold out much hope for victory by the U.S. on this one, either.
With our history going back to the end of World War II, the classic definition of “insanity” comes to mind: “One who keeps repeating the same behavior over and over, hoping to get a different result.” Kinda fits, doesn’t it?
We seem to be locked into a long timeline of Presidents who have made a practice of professing to be a “man of the people,” only to prove themselves to be elitists of the worst kind. Our current President is doing a pretty good job of demonstrating to the nation that he is following the example of a good many of his predecessors in this regard.
He has pandered to the former Clinton Administration to the extent that he has brought several members of that administration into his own to, essentially, engage in much the same kind of self-serving and deceptive behavior that Willie Boy did so very well in cahoots with Phil Gramm, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers.
His hollow words and promises about holding the Bush Administration to account for their transgressions in fomenting a war based on a pack of lies, torture, questionable business practices, etc. all seem rather empty.
He has not increased the taxes on the super-rich that so obscenely plundered the nation under George Bush. In the meantime, the rich only get richer and the blue-collar workers are plunged ever more deeply into a state of abject poverty.
Wall Street has been given billions (perhaps trillions) of dollars at the expense of the taxpayers, with absolutely no demonstration of remorse for what they have inflicted on this country, or good faith in cleaning up their act for the benefit of the economy. The salaries and bonuses only get bigger and bigger, with our tax dollars, of course. Ah, what a man of the people he has turned out to be! By the way, did you catch the item on Tuesday night’s news announcing the engagement of Chelsea Clinton to (you got it) an investment banker. How does that square with the fact that (a) her dad, as President, deregulated the financial industries, and (b) Chelsea worked (and may still be working) for the largest hedge fund on Wall Street. There is much to be said for keeping it in the family. That seems to be the preferred means for staying at the top of the food chain by the wealthy of this country.
He has made backroom deals with health insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies so they can continue to fleece the American people of those basics most needed for a reasonably healthy and productive life. Ah, those little private meetings in the White House for the select few do accomplish wonders!
Community banks cannot loan to small businesses because the Barons of Wall Street refuse to part with any of our tax dollars, so they can continue to speculate with the wealth of the nation. Dollars that were supposed to go to the creation of jobs for a nation crying for the privilege of earning an honest living. Ah, not to worry. Just trust us. Yeah, right! The magnanimous size and scope of his so-called “Stimulus Plan” compared to the “Wall Street Bailout” wouldn’t even qualify as economic foreplay preparatory to screwing the nation.
Except for the times when he engages in oral scatology for political purposes, I don’t think President Obama really wants much to do with the average person in our society. I have to give him credit, he fakes it reasonably well, but his actions are certainly not consistent with his words. I was impressed that he chose to make his speech regarding increased troop levels in Afghanistan at West Point rather than at Fort Bragg. After all, the ambiance and the station in life of the cadets are more in keeping with the privileged elite of this country. There is much to be said about keeping with your own kind, I suppose.
It should not go unnoticed that we are still depending on an “all-volunteer” army. There is no draft, which would, of course, make the follies of war in the Middle East a burden to be shared equally by everyone called on to serve. I suspect those who are at West Point are there because that is where they belong and where they want to be. Those on the ground fighting the war are, in the majority of cases, probably there because (a) they couldn’t find a job at home and (b) there are hungry mouths depending on their meager earnings for food on the table and a roof over their heads. Ham hocks and beans may not measure up to arugula with balsamic vinegar, vintage white wine, capped off with a nice peach flambé, but it sure beats the alternative, doesn‘t it?
The Pentagon is reputed to have over 600 corporations under contract. Why and how do the salaries of their mercenaries square with those of a foot soldier? I would hazard a guess that their families are not subsisting on the basics like those of our service men and women. Foreclosure, to them, is probably nothing more than a word in the dictionary. Why are we still doing business with KBR and Blackwater in Afghanistan after their massive negligence and swindles in Iraq? Are there no consequences for criminal behavior these days? For petty crimes, perhaps? For massive fraud, never!
I don’t understand why we have land forces fighting in a mountainous terrain of the kind to be found in Afghanistan. Isn’t that rather like sending gun fodder from New Jersey to fight a foe of seasoned fighters in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho?
Why do we have such a long history of shoring up petty dictators and corrupt leadership to the tune of billions of dollars? Karzai and Musharraf being the latest. What are we buying from those bastards and what did we get for our money?
Why do we persist on fighting what appears to be an elusive enemy in countries populated with Islamic radicals where, at best, we are tolerated. I would hazard a guess that we are not welcome guests and, were it not for the money we pour into their coffers, we would find ourselves very quickly persona non grata.
I am mystified as to how many land bases we maintain around the world in light of the fact that there have been such tremendous strides in weaponry and delivery systems. Why do we need to billet troops in foreign countries at all? I would not be the least bit surprised if, in the majority of cases, the countries where we have those bases would just as soon have us pack our bags and go home.
We have unmanned drones, ballistic missiles, intercontinental bombers, aircraft carriers, and submarines spread across the continents and oceans of the world. With all of that technology, why are we even fighting a land war anymore? Oops, I forgot. The number of stars on the shoulders is directly proportional to the number of troops under any given command. Right? And all those numbering in the tens of thousands of American service personnel to track down and destroy a threat from Al Qaeda of approximately 100 individuals. That does seem like overkill, but then I am just a simple man when it comes to understanding things like military strategy, 600 corporations under contract to the Pentagon, and known criminal practices of companies like KBR and Blackwater that just, as they say, “keep on giving.” I suspect more stars have been won through raw ambition and political acumen than were ever awarded because of military genius.
Decades ago there was an obscure little man from Missouri sitting in the White House by the name of Harry S. Truman. He subscribed to and lived his life by one simple principle called “honesty.” There was nothing glamorous about him. He was a man of modest means and his behavior was consistent with his words. In short, he was believable and because of that, we trusted him. He never let us down.
Harry may have only had a high school education, but he had the courage of his convictions. He was not intimidated by those of privilege and wealth. His crowning achievement was using the courage of his convictions and the superiority of his elected office to fire an arrogant general who had become a legend in his own time, but a danger to the country. That is leadership vs. politics. We need a few more like him today, but they just don’t seem to be around anymore.
Why can’t we bring ourselves to tell the rest of the world -----
The United States of America is flat-ass broke.
We no longer have the means to protect the far reaches of the globe.
We no longer have the means to subsidize mega-banks, international corporations, a severely bloated military establishment, and the hundreds of contractors that feed on their largesse.
We sold off our industrial base and exported middle class jobs to cheap labor markets around the world, from which the recipients are profiting handsomely today while the victims of their greed stand in unemployment lines in an effort to simply survive.
As a result of the foregoing, the number of unemployed in our country is multiplying at an alarming rate, because of the rampant corruption and apathy of our governing establishment, plus the fact that there are no jobs to which they can go.
A once industrious and proud nation of good and decent people, and the most generous in the history of the world, has been reduced to various degrees of destitution. Homelessness is mounting at an alarming rate, food banks are stretched to the limit and getting worse, there is not adequate healthcare for millions of citizens, and access to an education is dwindling because of escalating costs. AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE SUFFERING and that is no longer acceptable as the price of empire.
Millions of good and decent citizens of this country earned their money honestly, they paid their taxes willingly, and they supported what those taxes went to out of a sense of duty in the rightness of what was being bought by those dollars. They did not pay those precious dollars just to have the high rollers on Wall Street gamble it away in an attempt to satiate their avariciousness. They did not pay those precious dollars so the super-rich could indulge their gluttonous appetites at the expense of the common good. They did not pay those precious dollars to flow into the coffers of corrupt politicians and the sinkholes for money over which they preside. American citizens are suffering and they want that money returned to them. They have had enough of the cold piercing their bodies, the pangs of hunger gnawing at their bellies and the crying of their children ringing in their ears. Good and decent Americans who have given so much for so long are suffering and they want their money spent on their needs for a change. Enough of the speeches and the never-ending bull shit that flows from the marble city on the Potomac.
Avarice and corruption are no longer regarded as virtuous, but are cast as the crimes against humanity that they are, in reality.
Why can’t we face up to the reality of our national tragedy and let the world know that ---
We are now serving notice that, in keeping with our heritage and traditions, we want to live peacefully with and within the world community. However, let it be known that if any terrorist group launches an attack against the United States of America, we will hold the country from which the attack was launched completely responsible for the actions of those terrorists. The host country should have known they were there and what they were up to. Their actions will be met with a retaliatory strike against the country providing safe haven to those terrorists, using every means of modern warfare at our disposal, except the precious lives of our young men and women in uniform. Far too much blood of the valiant and the brave has been shed in the pursuit of human freedom, only later to prove to be nothing more than sustenance for vampires.
Those of our own who have so mercilessly plundered the treasure of this country have lost sight of the fact that there are over 300 million people who are perfectly capable of restoring real democracy to this beleaguered land. The super-rich may have the gold, but those who can boast of being real Americans have the guts. Never underestimate the will and determination of a man and his family without food, shelter and the necessities of life. History has shown that to be a potent cocktail for change, and history has a way of repeating itself.
For the moment, the winds of change may be little more than a breeze, but the air is stirring. When that gentle breeze becomes a roaring hurricane, we are all in trouble. As the soil of corruption and decay thickens, the more difficult it is for the seeds of honesty and decency to germinate and take root.
Cowboy Bob
December 5, 2009
We haven’t won a land war since World War II, but we seem to have some sort of perverted need to keep beating our heads against the proverbial brick wall hoping that an overwhelmingly decisive victory is yet to be ours. How can that be?
The Korean War resulted in a stalemate with a permanently divided country as the result. God only knows how much it has cost the American taxpayer to maintain a standing army for what must be the world’s longest staring contest in history. For what?
Vietnam? Well, we all know how that turned out and the sheer folly behind that debacle. How many American lives were lost on that one and for what?
Then there was the Iraq War. Ah, yes. Waged on totally false pretenses so a couple of sociopaths, who avoided military service because of wealth and influence, could play war with the lives of real heroes in a pathetic attempt to sanitize their cowardly images, and delude themselves into believing that, in the end, they really were war heroes. Meanwhile, the nation still clings tenaciously to the mantra that it was all done to “keep us safe,” and to “protect our freedoms.” I can’t quite figure out who is the most to be pitied; those who lied us into the war or those who actually believed we were under threat from a nation with which we were not at war.
Now, we are once again facing up to a struggle to “protect our freedoms” in Afghanistan. This is a place that has been over-run by ambitious conquerors going back to Genghis Khan, none of whom was victorious. I don’t hold out much hope for victory by the U.S. on this one, either.
With our history going back to the end of World War II, the classic definition of “insanity” comes to mind: “One who keeps repeating the same behavior over and over, hoping to get a different result.” Kinda fits, doesn’t it?
We seem to be locked into a long timeline of Presidents who have made a practice of professing to be a “man of the people,” only to prove themselves to be elitists of the worst kind. Our current President is doing a pretty good job of demonstrating to the nation that he is following the example of a good many of his predecessors in this regard.
He has pandered to the former Clinton Administration to the extent that he has brought several members of that administration into his own to, essentially, engage in much the same kind of self-serving and deceptive behavior that Willie Boy did so very well in cahoots with Phil Gramm, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers.
His hollow words and promises about holding the Bush Administration to account for their transgressions in fomenting a war based on a pack of lies, torture, questionable business practices, etc. all seem rather empty.
He has not increased the taxes on the super-rich that so obscenely plundered the nation under George Bush. In the meantime, the rich only get richer and the blue-collar workers are plunged ever more deeply into a state of abject poverty.
Wall Street has been given billions (perhaps trillions) of dollars at the expense of the taxpayers, with absolutely no demonstration of remorse for what they have inflicted on this country, or good faith in cleaning up their act for the benefit of the economy. The salaries and bonuses only get bigger and bigger, with our tax dollars, of course. Ah, what a man of the people he has turned out to be! By the way, did you catch the item on Tuesday night’s news announcing the engagement of Chelsea Clinton to (you got it) an investment banker. How does that square with the fact that (a) her dad, as President, deregulated the financial industries, and (b) Chelsea worked (and may still be working) for the largest hedge fund on Wall Street. There is much to be said for keeping it in the family. That seems to be the preferred means for staying at the top of the food chain by the wealthy of this country.
He has made backroom deals with health insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies so they can continue to fleece the American people of those basics most needed for a reasonably healthy and productive life. Ah, those little private meetings in the White House for the select few do accomplish wonders!
Community banks cannot loan to small businesses because the Barons of Wall Street refuse to part with any of our tax dollars, so they can continue to speculate with the wealth of the nation. Dollars that were supposed to go to the creation of jobs for a nation crying for the privilege of earning an honest living. Ah, not to worry. Just trust us. Yeah, right! The magnanimous size and scope of his so-called “Stimulus Plan” compared to the “Wall Street Bailout” wouldn’t even qualify as economic foreplay preparatory to screwing the nation.
Except for the times when he engages in oral scatology for political purposes, I don’t think President Obama really wants much to do with the average person in our society. I have to give him credit, he fakes it reasonably well, but his actions are certainly not consistent with his words. I was impressed that he chose to make his speech regarding increased troop levels in Afghanistan at West Point rather than at Fort Bragg. After all, the ambiance and the station in life of the cadets are more in keeping with the privileged elite of this country. There is much to be said about keeping with your own kind, I suppose.
It should not go unnoticed that we are still depending on an “all-volunteer” army. There is no draft, which would, of course, make the follies of war in the Middle East a burden to be shared equally by everyone called on to serve. I suspect those who are at West Point are there because that is where they belong and where they want to be. Those on the ground fighting the war are, in the majority of cases, probably there because (a) they couldn’t find a job at home and (b) there are hungry mouths depending on their meager earnings for food on the table and a roof over their heads. Ham hocks and beans may not measure up to arugula with balsamic vinegar, vintage white wine, capped off with a nice peach flambé, but it sure beats the alternative, doesn‘t it?
The Pentagon is reputed to have over 600 corporations under contract. Why and how do the salaries of their mercenaries square with those of a foot soldier? I would hazard a guess that their families are not subsisting on the basics like those of our service men and women. Foreclosure, to them, is probably nothing more than a word in the dictionary. Why are we still doing business with KBR and Blackwater in Afghanistan after their massive negligence and swindles in Iraq? Are there no consequences for criminal behavior these days? For petty crimes, perhaps? For massive fraud, never!
I don’t understand why we have land forces fighting in a mountainous terrain of the kind to be found in Afghanistan. Isn’t that rather like sending gun fodder from New Jersey to fight a foe of seasoned fighters in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho?
Why do we have such a long history of shoring up petty dictators and corrupt leadership to the tune of billions of dollars? Karzai and Musharraf being the latest. What are we buying from those bastards and what did we get for our money?
Why do we persist on fighting what appears to be an elusive enemy in countries populated with Islamic radicals where, at best, we are tolerated. I would hazard a guess that we are not welcome guests and, were it not for the money we pour into their coffers, we would find ourselves very quickly persona non grata.
I am mystified as to how many land bases we maintain around the world in light of the fact that there have been such tremendous strides in weaponry and delivery systems. Why do we need to billet troops in foreign countries at all? I would not be the least bit surprised if, in the majority of cases, the countries where we have those bases would just as soon have us pack our bags and go home.
We have unmanned drones, ballistic missiles, intercontinental bombers, aircraft carriers, and submarines spread across the continents and oceans of the world. With all of that technology, why are we even fighting a land war anymore? Oops, I forgot. The number of stars on the shoulders is directly proportional to the number of troops under any given command. Right? And all those numbering in the tens of thousands of American service personnel to track down and destroy a threat from Al Qaeda of approximately 100 individuals. That does seem like overkill, but then I am just a simple man when it comes to understanding things like military strategy, 600 corporations under contract to the Pentagon, and known criminal practices of companies like KBR and Blackwater that just, as they say, “keep on giving.” I suspect more stars have been won through raw ambition and political acumen than were ever awarded because of military genius.
Decades ago there was an obscure little man from Missouri sitting in the White House by the name of Harry S. Truman. He subscribed to and lived his life by one simple principle called “honesty.” There was nothing glamorous about him. He was a man of modest means and his behavior was consistent with his words. In short, he was believable and because of that, we trusted him. He never let us down.
Harry may have only had a high school education, but he had the courage of his convictions. He was not intimidated by those of privilege and wealth. His crowning achievement was using the courage of his convictions and the superiority of his elected office to fire an arrogant general who had become a legend in his own time, but a danger to the country. That is leadership vs. politics. We need a few more like him today, but they just don’t seem to be around anymore.
Why can’t we bring ourselves to tell the rest of the world -----
The United States of America is flat-ass broke.
We no longer have the means to protect the far reaches of the globe.
We no longer have the means to subsidize mega-banks, international corporations, a severely bloated military establishment, and the hundreds of contractors that feed on their largesse.
We sold off our industrial base and exported middle class jobs to cheap labor markets around the world, from which the recipients are profiting handsomely today while the victims of their greed stand in unemployment lines in an effort to simply survive.
As a result of the foregoing, the number of unemployed in our country is multiplying at an alarming rate, because of the rampant corruption and apathy of our governing establishment, plus the fact that there are no jobs to which they can go.
A once industrious and proud nation of good and decent people, and the most generous in the history of the world, has been reduced to various degrees of destitution. Homelessness is mounting at an alarming rate, food banks are stretched to the limit and getting worse, there is not adequate healthcare for millions of citizens, and access to an education is dwindling because of escalating costs. AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE SUFFERING and that is no longer acceptable as the price of empire.
Millions of good and decent citizens of this country earned their money honestly, they paid their taxes willingly, and they supported what those taxes went to out of a sense of duty in the rightness of what was being bought by those dollars. They did not pay those precious dollars just to have the high rollers on Wall Street gamble it away in an attempt to satiate their avariciousness. They did not pay those precious dollars so the super-rich could indulge their gluttonous appetites at the expense of the common good. They did not pay those precious dollars to flow into the coffers of corrupt politicians and the sinkholes for money over which they preside. American citizens are suffering and they want that money returned to them. They have had enough of the cold piercing their bodies, the pangs of hunger gnawing at their bellies and the crying of their children ringing in their ears. Good and decent Americans who have given so much for so long are suffering and they want their money spent on their needs for a change. Enough of the speeches and the never-ending bull shit that flows from the marble city on the Potomac.
Avarice and corruption are no longer regarded as virtuous, but are cast as the crimes against humanity that they are, in reality.
Why can’t we face up to the reality of our national tragedy and let the world know that ---
We are now serving notice that, in keeping with our heritage and traditions, we want to live peacefully with and within the world community. However, let it be known that if any terrorist group launches an attack against the United States of America, we will hold the country from which the attack was launched completely responsible for the actions of those terrorists. The host country should have known they were there and what they were up to. Their actions will be met with a retaliatory strike against the country providing safe haven to those terrorists, using every means of modern warfare at our disposal, except the precious lives of our young men and women in uniform. Far too much blood of the valiant and the brave has been shed in the pursuit of human freedom, only later to prove to be nothing more than sustenance for vampires.
Those of our own who have so mercilessly plundered the treasure of this country have lost sight of the fact that there are over 300 million people who are perfectly capable of restoring real democracy to this beleaguered land. The super-rich may have the gold, but those who can boast of being real Americans have the guts. Never underestimate the will and determination of a man and his family without food, shelter and the necessities of life. History has shown that to be a potent cocktail for change, and history has a way of repeating itself.
For the moment, the winds of change may be little more than a breeze, but the air is stirring. When that gentle breeze becomes a roaring hurricane, we are all in trouble. As the soil of corruption and decay thickens, the more difficult it is for the seeds of honesty and decency to germinate and take root.
Cowboy Bob
December 5, 2009
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