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Accepting Various Truths
No one in the Obama administration is going to acknowledge that our foreign policy in the Middle East has alienated many Arabs.
The U.S. pro-Israel policy and our shocking neglect of the beleaguered Palestinians underlie almost every initiative or tactical tilt that comes out of Washington.President Obama and his predecessors in the White House have scored domestic political points by embracing this world view. This is one vantage point that is truly bipartisan, to the point where no one discusses it.
Michael Scheuer, a former CIA specialist on the al-Qaida terrorists, complained on C-SPAN recently that any debate about American support for Israel is "normally squelched."
"For anyone to say our support for Israel doesn't hurt us is to just defy reality," he added.
Another former CIA analyst, Ray McGovern, says the 9/11 Commission report noted that Khalid Sheikh -- the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks -- cited his violent disagreement with U.S. support for Israel as the motivating dynamic behind the attacks.
Obama knows enough about the Middle East that tightening airport security is not the whole answer to fighting terrorism. He should try a more even-handed policy in the region.
Grievances of the Arab man on the street include bitter criticism of the U.S. for supporting harsh authoritarian regimes in the Arab world and the failure of those U.S.-backed regimes to help the Palestinians in Gaza.
Surely after several years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we can dispense with the obfuscation and evasion that flood forth from official U.S. megaphones.
Terrorism spawned in the Middle East is not the only threat we face.
As the American economy digs out from the debris of the Great Recession triggered by the collapse of the housing bubble, we should think about what could happen about another bubble that invisibly chugs through the American economy.
I refer to our bloated defense spending.
The United States spends more for its arsenal than any other 10 countries combined. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the U.S. accounts for more than 40 percent of the world's total military spending. China is in second place, at a relatively puny 5.8 percent.
If the U.S. defense spending bubble were ever to deflate, domestic job losses would be catastrophic, a stunning fact that raises the question of whether we can ever afford peace.
The American people have long shown they can handle the truth. When it comes to the Middle East and to threats to our economy, so should our leaders.
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Show All"If the U.S. defense spending bubble were ever to deflate, domestic job losses would be catastrophic, a stunning fact that raises the question of whether we can ever afford peace."
The above says it all! Without war the US will collapse and so will Israel. They need war. They need to manufacture one if there is none. What do think the job of those dead CIA agents in Afghan was? Or elsewhere in the world? They generate false flag operations to start wars. So is the job of the master of false flag ops...the Mossad.
The US of A thrives on war. And the MSM does its job of selling it morning, noon and night.
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
Quote by Dr. Martin Luther King who also said that we should do what is right even when it is risky or unpopular.
Our defense industries which are in every state in the nation must gradually diversify into other peaceable areas of production so that we stop being the arms dealer of the world.
"Without war the US will collapse and so will Israel."
Quote by Helen Thomas
It's also possible (recall Soviet Union) that "WITH war the US will collapse..."
Recall that Bin Laden proposed to seduce the US into a series of boondoggle wars to ruin its economy.
>>Recall that Bin Laden proposed to seduce the US into a series of boondoggle wars to ruin its economy.<<
bin Laden in his cave: "Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Gary
As an aside what is keeping that SOB alive???????? Last I heard he was tethered to a dialysis machine being carted around on a barrel or something. That was 7 years ago. Does he have nine lives? Not that I'm wishing he were dead or anything.... ;)
repeat
now there's the truth, bin laden brought it to america and the americans can not see. see what? that our behavior in the middle east for the last 100 years has caused the people there to hate us. hate the usofa to the point where some have actually taken action. now you could say that they killed close to 3000 people but i would say no its just that a group of people did something about the injustice of western countries stealing their wealth and corrupting their lives with the twisted leadership of their countries that followed. that and the israelis constantly sticking a finger in their eye per Palestine. look at us. a few lies and we are in iraq killing hundreds of thousands of people that live there and thousands of our own sent there to do the killing. god bless america, its such a joke.
I don't buy that argument or the framing of it.
War employs people in the production of goods and services that generally produce no lasting economic benefit since most of the goods are designed to be destroyed while those that are not destroyed (e.g. aircraft pitted against warriors with guns) have no economic use in peacetime.
So the question to be asked is how can the war economy be replaced by a peace economy? What goods and services should be produced that provide a lasting economic benefit? The answer has been addressed here many times, mass transit, renewable energy etc., which could as easily use the expertise of high tech defence contractors.
My impression from viewing Helen is that she is a bright and tenacious individual and considering the title, this is one of the truths that should not be accepted.
No, she's right, the reason being that it's *because* munitions are constantly used up that stopping it would collapse Capitalist economies like this one.
Imagine that we stop producing things except when they're needed, and that we always aim for upgrading rather than replacing. We don't tear down buildings so that some contractor can make a pile; we build vehicles on the original VW/microcar model: tiny changes from year to year that can be incorporated into existing vehicles if desired; we build modular computers so that old ones don't end in the landfill or poisoning some Chinese acquifer; we don't build munitions that must be constantly used and replaced.
What would happen? Well, people would have a lot of free time, for one thing! But more particularly, the owner class would vanish: they wouldn't own anything anymore. They wouldn't have a steady income stream of millions a year from stripping the Earth to build crap to turn into junk. It would all stop. They'd be "poor", and have to live the same as anyone else.
We'd have a secular version of the Amish/aboriginal world, but with better technology. There wouldn't be a house-building industry, there'd be neighbors building houses (and the houses would be designed to last hundreds of years, not start to come apart in 20 or 50). There'd be people making things because they're needed, not so that some sod in a penthouse somewhere can play one-up with his Nantucket neighbors ("How's that old yacht of yours holding up? We just bought a custom 1500-footer, y'knaw").
She's right. As long as we're suckered into believing we must preserve a predatory economy, of course we can't do anything sensible.
We need to start serious discussions with democratically elected Hamas instead of dismissing them as a terrorist group. We need to send that money to Gaza we promised. We need to hold Israel's callused feet to the fire about the settlements. Get them to the table on peace talks.
We need to open discussions with other Arab countries. Yes, we need to open talks with Iran as well. We need to stop supporting Sunnites against Shi'ites. We need to get the CIA out of the business of regime change.
We need to be fair in our dealing in the Middle East. For a change of pace.
Gary
Right you are, Gary. I agree with all of the above.
I'd disagree about Hamas. They're ugly, anti-woman fundies, and the only reason they got elected is that they seemed to be willing to fight back rather than accommodate and appease.
What we need to do is support a *secular* structure.
More 1984 doublespeaking Quisling querying whether peace were to be as awful as war, Winston. Eh?
We need to be honest brokers in facilitating peace between Israelis and Palestinians and not an appendage of AIPAC.
Soon, and possibly sooner than anyone thinks, the USA will have to accept that this country is in a state of decline, from which only a miracle can lift it out of its self-inflicted rut -- and only the mother of all miracles could ever restore it to the status of "world's only unchallenged superpower".
If it cannot do so, and realize that major changes will have to be made militarily, politically, and economically, this country, I fear, will begin breaking up along sectional lines, much like the old Austro-Hungarian Empire did after WWI.
After all, empires don't last; as Marcus Aurelius said, “Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.” Best to accept that our "time in the sun" is over, and bow gracefully off the world stage, and get to work repairing things at home, than be dragged off the stage (as it were) feet first and toes up.
Prof. Panarin says the jig is up this year.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
Helen marches to her own drummer however measured or far away; and this is what makes her an authentic legend in a field of yes men and women. She is a true gem for which I respect and admire her because she stands alone in a field of midgets.
You're kidding, right? Helen has no louder a voice than you do. Nobody has listened to her in years. Not to say she doesn't repeat what we all know to be true, but come on, has she said anything worth a damn in a hundred years? Hell, I can sit at press conferences silently for years too. Have you forgotten who she works for? The fact that they print her shit just means they had a slow day. Get with the program.
Everything written here is true.
Problem is, they aren't listening because they don't care.
They're more tone deaf than ever before.
"US Defense Industry" is a misnomer, US industry is offensive, US military is offensive.
This "industry" even creates new "terrorists" when the terrified can no longer stand up to defend themselves or retaliate against their oppressors.
For the record: the bulk of recent terrorism is spawned in Washington and London, in the middle east, terrorism for the main part is spawned in Tel Aviv.
Remove the USA, British, and zionazi terror centres and the terror dissipates.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
Helen Thomas is one of a very few white house journalists worthy of the name. Blind support for Israel could eventually lead to the destruction of the United States.
"Blind support for Israel could eventually lead to the destruction of the United States."
Supporting Israel unconditionally could also lead to the eventual and actual destruction of Israel, too.
Your point about policies that support Israel unconditionally being its ultimate undoing is an important one that usually gets missed.
Israel, with the enabling of its most staunch supporters, has aggressively painted itself into a corner. A two state solution is no longer possible, and a one state solution could not be achieved without the end of the Jewish state or forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population from the occupied territories. Israel is done for either way. If the moral justification for the Jewish state ceases to exist, Israel will end up as white South Africa did.
It will truly be one of the cruel ironies of history that Israel's strongest supporters, in the end, ensured its destruction. Those who tried to criticize Israel to turn it away from its self destructive path, from Jimmy Carter to Joseph Goldstone, have been demonized by these so-called "supporters" of Israel. It is all very sad and very stupid.
Interesting to note though that Israel was the only other country featured in swooping down to help Haiti. Nice that they can afford those portable hi-tech hospitals paid for by the US taxpayer. Meanwhile, not a word about Cuba--probably first on the ground with medical help in tow.
Cuba was first, since Cuba has already had doctors and medical staff in Haiti, providing healthcare to the poor, for decades. Cuba has also been training Haitians to become doctors, also for free, for decades.
I'm wondering if the reports of Israel's swoop into Haiti impressed anyone. What it made me think of was Israel's attacks on Gaza, and the way the Israeli forces prevented help from reaching the families who were dying in the rubble.
petrkrop January 19th, 2010 2:58 pm -- I was very impressed. I heard that the Israeli medical program, coming from much farther away, was set up and getting things done before the U.S. even got there.
I thought of the Longfellow poem, which goes (in part):
"There was a little girl who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead
When she was good she was very, very good
But when she was bad she was horrid."
Lots of others came from far far away too--if they were even allowed clearance to land. Israel was ushered in and played up in the US media--it was a plum of an opportunity after Gaza to make a PR pitch.
In my 60-odd years on this earth I have seen crises, bubbles, wars, near-wars, natural disasters, corruption on a scale not to be believed, human nature at its ugliest, etc and somehow civilization manages to find a crazy equilibrium to deal with it all. The Great Recession won't destroy the US of A, neither will "blind support of Israel". The USA and the world will just keep clunking along as it always has. It won't end with a bang or even a whimper--not even a yawn. It just won't end, period.
Yeah, Rome is still there too. I guess that is why they call it "the eternal city".
Not quite the same though, is it?
Empires come and go. What makes the USA any different?
Remember it took the Roman empire 1000 years to rise and fall. This nations is only 234 years old. We could have quite a long road yet to traverse.
Your first statement was very definitive: "It just won't end, period." Now you say, more hesitantly, "We could have quite a long road yet to traverse." Which is it; are you certain the U.S. will last forever, or are you merely saying that you believe that predictions of our demise are premature?
I grouped the "world" in with that statement. The world will continue in one form or another for infinity----90 billion years or so when our sun eventually burns out being "infinity". Far as the USA goes lots of people are adamant that it will disappear in the next three decades. Baloney. The US of A will still be limping along for another thousand years. The powers-that-be have too great a stake in it to let it just wither away.
>>The powers-that-be have too great a stake in it to let it just wither away.<<
The powers to be are stupid jackasses. Look how they swallowed the derivatives scam whole and are letting the climate burn up. Besides, most of the super-rich and corporations are multinational, so can switch to China and India for markets and places to spend money.
America _may_ limp along as a country (though secession if very likely) but be unrecognizable as a former superpower. Now a third-world nation...
Gary
>>>Now a third-world nation...
True. I never meant to imply that we'd continue as a superpower that long. Perhaps as a number of tribes much like the Indians pre-Columbus.
"The powers to be are stupid jackasses. Look how they swallowed the derivatives scam"
Not hardly, they helped orchestrate it.
Don't fall fall for the "oops, my bad" bunk.
Ooooh! You cornered me with that one, John!
And the world hardly changed a significant lick in those thousand years.
Things change a tad quicker now, you may have noticed.
Ten to one he didn't notice.
The Roman Empire ended in 476 in the west. The eastern region became a whole new empire. The Holy Roman Empire had nothing to do with the real Roman Empire.
And America really started in 1605. Maybe in 1492. So if we have the same range of time as the romans we are coming to the end of empire or are overdue for a fall.
Gary
Wow, nothing in nature supports your belief. This is indeed,a finite world.
"Helen Thomas is one of a very few white house journalists worthy of the name."
What the hell could possibly have led you to that conclusion?
War spending and warmongering are our sole reason for being anymore. They have been for a loooong time. Obama would have never been nominated, much less elected, if he didn't publicly embrace this national dedication to death. I hope Helen can stick around for a while longer, asking bristly questions of our imperial death dealers, not that they care what she thinks. For every one of her, there are a thousand asskissers to power.
But when she says, "The American people have long shown they can handle the truth", I have to ask, where in the past 50 years have they shown this? Really? If the "truth" can conveniently fit their prejudices, then they can handle it. But when they've been subjected to a lifetime of war propaganda and all the lies justifying every illegal war of the past 50 years, the truth stands less chance being recognized in their assembled presence than Penelope Cruz has being mistaken for the Christmas goose.
Americans CAN handle the truth, and deep down they know the truth----they're just too apathetic to really care about it, because they also know deep down they can't do a damn thing about it.
There is one hopeful thing that could come out of all of this.
Have you ever seen--despite the slight recent uptick in his polling presumably as a result to Americans feeling a passing pride in US response to Haiti, a president tumble down so fast?
It suggests that this trend can not be sustained indefinitely.
There are a couple of interesting graphs of Obama's declining approval ratings at http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_month_by_month.
Here are some interesting statistics from http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll:
"Fifty-seven percent (57%) of liberals Strongly Approve while 65% of conservatives Strongly Disapprove. Among political moderates, 32% Strongly Approve and 23% Strongly Disapprove (see other recent demographic highlights)."
Note that 57% of liberals strongly approve of Obama (if the poll is accurate)!
Well, better let all those liberals in MASS know.
Interesting, because it is one of the bluest states, where the liberal Kennedy dominated for decades--and this was his major issue, healthcare. But MASS is also the state with the most experience with this brand of reform--and it looks like thumbs down.
Perhaps they should poll real people of the Left or whatever you want to call it. True Liberals/Leftists are repelled by Obama's stance on war and nearly every other issue you can name. He is a near cookie cutter image of GWB.
Thank you Helen Thomas! You are a fine, old broad - and I mean that in the best sense. A national treasure. May the deities bless you.
Thank you Helen for always saying what needs to be said.
My congratulations to Ms. Thomas for her Spirit and Courage,
On Beliefs:
I believe:
Our Government must begin to operate as it was intended, as a Democracy. The Constitution guarantees a Republican form of Government to the State as a political subdivision of a Nation. The principles of Democracy established in our Declaration of Independence are seminal. They inform the operation of these political subdivisions as members of a Federal Union.
Many members of our National Legislature act on the belief that our National Government is a Republican form of Government. Under this philosophy, “sovereign will” is transposed to the judgment of the elected and abused. We are left with a Government that lies, whose deed is not consistent with its word. That position is ultimately destructive, whether it is practiced by Government or Individual.
America yearns for a Government that acts as it talks. The process of defining our government must come first. Once deeds become consistent with words, a national unity will emerge sufficient to meet the challenges of the future.
I further Believe:
If this is to occur, we must become the Citizen envisioned in our Declaration of Independence and guaranteed in our Constitution. Nothing else will do.
[The United States spends more for its arsenal than any other 10 countries combined.]
For some reason I thought the usa spent more on its arsenal than _all_ other countries combined. I do remember some articles pointing that out on CD last year, so what's changed? Have other countries increased their defense spending, or did Helen not want to speak that uncomfortable truth in this article?
One of the major reasons that the ussr collapsed was that it was spending too much of its national production on the military. I suppose we'll find out in the next few years if the same is true of the usa.