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hypewaders

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Robert Parry well articulates here what's been bothering me for a long time about growing US paranoia and militarism, and what's been recently bugging me about Obama's spineless pandering to the same irrationality that has been plaguing us since 9-11.

Whatever risks remain are so ephemeral that they are vastly outweighed by other dangers that the United States creates for itself by being perceived as a hypocritical nation that preaches human rights for others but not when Americans feel some remote danger.

If Americans really wanted to reduce the risk of a 9/11 repeat, they could undertake any number of policy changes, from reducing their dependence on Middle Eastern oil to demanding that the Israeli government grants meaningful statehood to the Palestinians.

Instead, the United States has opted for a behavioral pattern that veers from victimhood to bullying, from the tears that followed the 9/11 attacks and the lament “why do they hate us?” to the cheers for George W. Bush’s “shock and awe” bombardment of Iraq and the tough-guy treatment of captives.
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Then we will end up living in peace and Trillions of Dollars of money would not be spent in Security. That is a lot of money to those who receive it and it is in their best interest not to have peace.

Did I say Trillions of Dollars?
 
Nothing lasts forever- certainly not the corporate empire riding USAmericans' backs, and heading over a cliff:

Taxpayers yet unborn, generations of them, will be on the hook for the nearly $3 trillion--the amount borrowed plus interest to finance war operations over the last decade. Until now, most people barely noticed the dollar cost because it was on the national credit card. But whether they tossed tea or piled pennies or filled out forms in April, the American people are beginning to notice that the bills are coming due.
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hypewaders said:
Robert Parry well articulates here what's been bothering me for a long time about growing US paranoia and militarism, and what's been recently bugging me about Obama's spineless pandering to the same irrationality that has been plaguing us since 9-11.
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Thats pretty much ALL a president can do these days...PANDER!

The US government has far too many divisions of power...plagued by massive armies of lobbyists.

"Watch them clamber, these swift monkeys." -Nietzsche.
 
That somehow recalls the Wizard of Oz to me, and the profound message of that parable- With a little collective courage, we're a nation that can face and overcome the contrived illusions and fears that are confounding us.

Ding, Dong, Bin Laden's dead. Let's get back home, and back to work. Do we really need the Wizard to tell us what to do?
 
hypewaders said:
Robert Parry well articulates here what's been bothering me for a long time about growing US paranoia and militarism, and what's been recently bugging me about Obama's spineless pandering to the same irrationality that has been plaguing us since 9-11.
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One of the curiosities of the War on terror has always been the statistics. My love of red meat or my slipping in the bathtub is far more likely to kill me than any terrorist, yet the war on beef and the war on slippery bathroom tiles remain unwaged.

If we had spent a trillion dollars on either of those, we probably would have saved more American lives than fighting wars, even in Afghanistan, where the war was entirely justified, in my view).

Still, lightning strikes remain far more likely to kill me than any terrorist, and I live in Manhattan on a statistical basis, and yet I rarely note "suspicious clouds" in the sky as often as I do "unattended packages" on the subway.
 
I invested in GlaxoSmithkline in April because of the swine flu and inevitable over-reaction by the American public. The irrational fear of the public doesn't always have to be bad for you personally :)

As for the militarism, does anyone know how many people we have overseas right now in how many countries? I believe we pay to lease the space in some of these countries (at least in Germany). And the fact that the war was a major issue yet maybe 1/20 ppl know how many troops are actually deployed right now is another indication of an inept media.
 
EmeraldAxe: "maybe 1/20 ppl know how many troops are actually deployed right now"

I expect that far fewer than 1/200,000 USAmericans know that figure.

I don't know the answer, and it's not so easy to find reliable averages- of course the figures continuously change slightly as deployments cycle in and out. Even in round numbers, the statistics are elusive. Googling general reports and recent changes we could make a very rough estimate, that about 400k total US troops are deployed abroad, including roughly 180k (slowly declining) in Iraq, and roughly 40k (and rising) in Afghanistan.

For all the lack of interest in the numeric aspect, the interest among the US citizenry about how these forces are specifically enhancing our national interests is still more neglected. That they are all out there "Defending Our Freedom" is scarcely challenged.
 
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I read this in a comments post on a newspaper today:

"A phenomenon noticeable throughout history, regardless of place or period, is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests."
Barbara W. Tuchman
 
We can do both. We can reduce our need for oil as well as kill the fuckers that want us dead. If we support Israel, we should not alter our policy under threat from some crazy Muslims, who's desires are not realistic.
 
hypewaders said:
That somehow recalls the Wizard of Oz to me, and the profound message of that parable. With a little collective courage, we're a nation that can face and overcome the contrived illusions and fears that are confounding us.
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Yes, Oz was just a dream after all...just like the phony economy and the mandate of heaven to administer the world.

Wake up America...theres no place like home....theres no place like home...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YKn53vWIHA&feature=related
 
As Carcano remarked, "there's no place like home". This scary dream is over, and it's time for us to go home now, and get back to productive work/minding our own business.
 
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Yup, now they want to renegotiate their peace deal with Pakistan, and they are suicide bombing all over the place. That's what I call desperate. I'm not so ideologically stilted into thinking that just because Bush's War on Terra was a farce, there aren't really people out there trying to kill us (for God).
 
hypewaders said:
Nothing lasts forever- certainly not the corporate empire riding USAmericans' backs, and heading over a cliff:
Taxpayers yet unborn, generations of them, will be on the hook for the nearly $3 trillion--the amount borrowed plus interest to finance war operations over the last decade. Until now, most people barely noticed the dollar cost because it was on the national credit card. But whether they tossed tea or piled pennies or filled out forms in April, the American people are beginning to notice that the bills are coming due.​
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3 trillion over a decade? Obama's projected deficit for this year alone is almost 2 trillion.
 
spidergoat: "I'm not so ideologically stilted into thinking that just because Bush's War on Terra was a farce, there aren't really people out there trying to kill us (for God)."

You're ideologically stilted into Stay the Course (for a farce).
 
madanthonywayne: "Obama's projected deficit for this year alone is almost 2 trillion."

It's not Obama's deficit. That our war deficit is piled right on with it doesn't make it OK.
 
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