The Economy

I'm really freaked out.

Remember the movie "The Princess Bride"?

You only think I guessed wrong! That's what's so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha.. *dead*

Only George W. Bush could be a greater fool. To this day he knows nothing about economic policy. We have taken a huge portion of our economic stability and put it into a land war in Asia. 2 of them, in fact.

Back when I was a young child, the Communist juggernaut Soviet Union was trying to take over Afghanistan. They spent everything they had fighting the Taliban and Al Qaida(while the CIA funded the terrorists), and it bankrupted them. It caused the fall of the Soviet Union.

Now we have a different economic crisis on our hands, and it's quite possible that we could have money available to float our banks, fix the problems, and sell them when they become profitable -- like Sweden did.

But we don't have that money. It's now gone into the hands of government contractors, weapons manufacturers, and the black hole that is the Pentagon. The take-home pay of our ground troops pales in comparison to the aformentioned.

I hope Barack will be true to his word and end these wars quickly, not just for the sake of innocent lives there, but for the global economy as a whole. The reverberations from an employment shortage in the western world is very frightening.



And to slightly change topic, we've also spread belligerence across the planet. Instead of making friends, we've made hundreds of thousands of enemies. My only hope is that their anger will be attenuated in the future and if not, it will not be directed at those who've been trying to make the world a more peaceful place.

Perpetuation of violence has been a way of life for generations on the other side of the world. It is not something I want here. This world will self annihilate unless we perpetuate forgiveness to those who have trespassed against you.

Let Me Clear the Fog

I've had ENOUGH of this ridiculous "if we don't fight 'em there, we'll have to fight 'em here" logic.

This so called conventional wisdom flies in the face of common sense, so let me straighten it out. ESPECIALLY for all the "straight-shooters" out there.

In "The Fog of War", Robert McNamara, the longest standing Secretary of Defense in the history of the US, outlines the eleven lessons of his life. (He was a war strategist whiz-kid during WWII, the secretary of defense during the cuban missle crisis, and was SoD during administrations of both political parties)

His #1 lesson is: Empathize with your enemy.

We know at least a few things about our the terrorists we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

1. They will attack civilians if they can.
2. They may be murderers, but they aren't stupid.

I have one question for all you who are so concerned that if the war ends in Iraq, we'll have to dodge bullets at the grocery store.
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Why would an terrorist in Iraq fight an armed American trooper when he could with much less risk to his own life, fly/boat to mexico, and waltz(or Mariachi with an Elephant) across our swiss cheese southern border, and attack American citizens?
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NEWS FLASH. THEY CAN DO THAT TODAY.

The idea that they will follow the Marines BACK to the US is wildly absurd. Why would they buy their plane tickets when our occupation ends? Wouldn't the easiest target be American civilians within our borders while 200,000+ soldiers are overseas?

If it WAS happening today, we'd definately hear Bush 43 talk about it in the same breaths as he does with his alleged foiled terrorist plots. But, border security has been pretty low on the Bush administration & Homeland Security's to-do list. (in fact, I'd like to see Homeland Security's to-do list. I bet all line items are "waste money on ridiculous shit.")

But this is not happening now, and it won't happen later. Insurgents in Iraq want control of their country. They are not interested in killing American civilians in America, because if they were they'd already be doing it. The war in Iraq will NOT be fought on US soil ever.

Unfortunately, McNamara's #2 lesson is that "Rationality will not save us." He'll be right unless you learn to think for yourselves.
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Postscript:
EarlG @ democraticunderground.com put it really well this morning.

"Essentially [this] rationale is that our troops are nothing more than human sacrifices on the altar of global terrorism. If we pull out of Iraq, the evil monsters will come to America and kill us all! Much better to feed them a steady diet of young American men and women in a faraway country that we don't really have to think about, right?"