Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The Death of Mars



It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
~Voltaire

Our current on-going disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan are recognized as a lost cause by virtually everyone these days. Everyone except those who have the power to stop them. The "War on Terror" is now recognized by most as what it was obvious to some of us in the beginning; a scam. Osama Bin Laden is still alive more than eight years after he launched the impetus for this fiasco. The recent arrest by Pakistan of an ordinary citizen who took it upon himself to go and find him is as tragic as it is comical.

Have we reached a tipping point? Will Congress deny funding for this fool's errand? I would love to see it happen, but doubt it will. The deficit hawks that scream about large deficits when denying another penny of social spending, will no doubt rubber stamp another 50 billion dollars for the pointless and endless bloodletting. They are the true whores of war, even more so than the mercenary armies they give our tax money to.

No, it will be the public leading Congress on this issue, as is so often the case. People are sick of seeing the U.S. Treasury looted and services cut to support this boondoggle. Even the right-wing chickenhawks that plastered their SUVs with yellow ribbons stopped supporting the war once their Chickenhawks-In-Chief left office in disgrace early last year. Their allegiance to their country only went as far as their partisan political preferences. They were the only true believers and now that they have packed away their Chinese-made flags and ribbons all that is left to look at is the huge price tag in blood (never a concern of theirs anyway) and money, which they do care about. Two years ago it was "we can't cut and run". I think we can all agree on cutting our losses now and going home before our economy implodes for the last time.

2 comments:

Black Diaspora said...

Ernesto, I always enjoy reading your blog entries.

Many feel that our military allowed bin Laden to escape.

It's hard for me to believe that our following of a cell phone signal, and conversation--that we were listening to, that referenced him--was the reason he was allowed to escape.

At that time, we were told that the Afghan government also allowed Mullah Omar to escape.

Will we ever know the entire truth around these two men?

Teabaggers say that they're opposed to run-away government spending, but I hear no outcry from them about the government's deficit spending to cover our two wars.

I guess some deficit spending is more acceptable than other deficit spending.

Spending for our ill-conceived wars is okay, even helping pay for the clean up of the Gulf is okay, but one red cent to extend unemployment insurance for hundreds of thousands is not okay.

This nation has its priorities upside down.

"Two years ago it was 'we can't cut and run'. I think we can all agree on cutting our losses now and going home before our economy implodes for the last time."

I often wonder how a McCain presidency would be faring about now. What would he and Sarah have done differently, if anything?

It doesn't take reading tea leaves (supplied by Teabaggers, or not), or a handwriting on the wall (with crayons provided by Sarah Palin from her coloring book) to know that this country is on a trajectory that will make the American Dream, as it is commonly perceived, a living nightmare.

Ernesto said...

Bin Laden was the best thing that ever happened to the military industrial complex, it's no wonder they won't get the goose that laid their trillion dollar eggs.

McCain/Palin would have an even bigger deficit, and more of it would come from Pentagon spending, based on a continuation of the previous Republican regime. The so-called fiscal conservatives want to have a lot of guns and a little butter but not raise taxes to pay for anything.