By Padmini Arhant
In the past weeks, the additional troops request from the U.S. Commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal in the 10,000 to 80,000 range and then reportedly cut back to the median 40,000 troop level is attention worthy due to the flurry of comments, rhetoric and insinuations from the quarters responsible for the status quo.
The U.S. troops presence including the recently approved contingency expected to arrive in December 2009 stands at 68,000 along with the participation of 28 nations in the form of NATO alliance further boosting the military representation in one nation – Afghanistan, to deal with the combined insurgency from the Afghan Talibans and the Al-Qaida in the northern regions.
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Thank you.
Padmini Arhant
October 18, 2009
Venue: U.S. House Committee on Foreign AffairsDate: 10/15/2009
Transcript:
Ron Paul: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the last months, we have had a pretense of having a debate about Afghanistan, but unfortunately, it’s not much of a debate. We’re deciding whether or not to send 40,000 or 80,000 troops over to Afghanistan and we can’t even decide where the frontlines are. But the worst part of this is this is just déjà vu again, all about going to war needlessly. The same arguments were used in going into war against Iraq and that is “weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaeda, scare the people, it’s in our national security interest to go there” and we continue.
The Taliban never did a thing to us. The Taliban, we were paying them money up until May of 2001. They’re not capable, even if they wanted to, they’re not capable of touching us. So we’re over there, pursuing a war, spreading the war, and going into Pakistan. The American people don’t want it. We’re out of money. We can’t afford medical education here and we’re demanding that we send 80,000 or 40,000 troops to Afghanistan and expand the war. It’s time to end the whole mess.
Chairman Howard L. Berman: The time of the gentleman has expired.
The time has expired and the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Paul, is through.
Ron Paul: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It seems like we’ve had now a war going on for eight years, into the ninth year, and from the discussion, it looks like we’re searching for a justification for it; what is the reason we are there? I think we got that cart before the horse. We’ve been fighting all this time and it means that it isn’t a management problem. It’s a policy problem of how we got there, why we’re there, and what we’re doing, and besides, this type of debate about management, I can’t imagine this type of debate going on in World War II. You know, we knew who the enemy was; we declared war. The President said he’s the commander in chief and told the Congress what he needed. Now, that isn’t an argument for the Congress not paying attention. It’s an argument against the way we go to war and it looks like we have accepted this notion that perpetual war leads to perpetual peace, and we satisfy the military-industrial complex and the special interests and all these motivations just to stay in war endlessly.
But even these eight years, I don’t see where the success is. Men die, thousands of Afghanis are displaced and die. It cost a quarter trillion dollars and we’re still finding out, you know, what are we there for? Oh, well, “if the Taliban takes over” – whom we used to, you know, get along with quite well = “if they take over all of a sudden, al-Qaeda is going to be there and there’s going to another 9/11.”
This is making the assumption that 9/11 couldn’t have occurred without these training camps in Afghanistan. Do you think those nineteen guys went over there and did push-ups in those camps? There is no way. There is no way they were there doing those things. The report, when they studied 9/11, they said, “Well, there is a lot of planning going on in Germany. A lot of planning going on in Spain and there were 15 of them and were Afghans [Saudis]. I mean, if somebody really wanted to, I bet they could have talked the American people into bombing Saudi Arabia. I mean, 15 of them are Saudis. I imagine under those circumstances, the American people and the Congress could have been talked into bombing Saudi Arabia under those conditions.
So I just don’t see how we could continue to do this and come up with any sensible policy because we never challenge, we never question whether preemptive war is a good strategy and this is what this is all about: preemptive wars, starting wars, saying it’s preventative. But this is a completely un-American approach to fighting wars because under the original system, the people got behind the war, declared the war, knew who the enemy was and we didn’t come up with these strategies; “Do we need 40,000 or 80,000 people and who should we give the money to? Should we give it to this group?”
Why don’t we ever ask the question and this will be the question I’ll leave with you. Why don’t we as a Congress and the administrations, former administrations as well as this one, why don’t we ask the question, what is the motivation for somebody to attack us? And I don’t think it’s ever really asked because I think there is a different answer than then if some say, “Oh, they hate us. They hate us for our freedoms and our wealth.”
And I don’t believe that for a minute. I think the people in Afghanistan, the large majority, no matter what the reports are from the administration, our puppet administration, most people want us out of there. They don’t want us in Pakistan. The people in Pakistan don’t want us there. People in Iraq don’t want us there. It’s occupation. So my question is this, why is that never talked about, or why is it dismissed so easily if indeed you study and you find out that people who are willing to sacrifice their life to make a point is because we are seen as foreign occupiers. Just as the Soviets were seen as foreign occupiers, just as we joined those individuals who wanted to throw out the foreign occupiers in the past, and yet now, we are. We learn nothing from history, both ancient history or even recent history. Why don’t we pay more attention to the true motivations behind somebody who wants to commit suicide terrorism against us. Anybody care to answer?
Chairman Howard L. Berman: In 20 seconds.
Unidentified Male Speaker: In twenty seconds. (Laughs).
Robert Kagan: Congressman, I think in 20 seconds, I can only tell you that some of us do pay a great deal of attention to what the ideology is that drives al-Qaeda and affiliated groups to try to attack us. It’s been articulated in tremendous detail on multiple books. It goes beyond not liking us because of our wealth and a variety of other things and it has to do with the struggle within Islam that they see us participating in whether we are present there or not. It is a very, very sophisticated strategy. It is a very, very sophisticated ideology and it is extremely clear on what their intentions are and why.
As detailed in the blogpost titled ‘U.S. Dilemma on Afghanistan’ published on the website www.padminiarhant.com, September 1, 2009 – in the ‘International Politics’ category, the flawed Afghan election results in favor of the current President Hamid Karzai appropriately rejected by the U.N. backed investigators with the runoff election scheduled for November 7, 2009.
Afghanistan heading for yet another election within two weeks is a tall order given the recent turmoil in the electoral process that led to the annulment of the results. Modern democracy is not devoid of voter fraud, corruption and unscrupulous tactics by the respective campaigns representing the political candidates. However, the Afghan election is complex due to the extremism ranging from physical threats, ballots stuffing, violence that mars the democratic protocol and worsened now with the August election declared ‘flawed,’ by the United Nations panel and the other international authorities.
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Activists are using every opportunity to reach the President, the most recent group bought tickets to a San Francisco fundraiser to deliver a peace petition to the President.
Code Pink made news recently when the Christian Science Monitor reported that co-founder Medea Benjamin was suggesting that there might be room for alternative strategies and an extended timeline for the military in Afghanistan.� Co-founder Jodie Evans quickly clarified this in an interview with Scott Horton, saying that Kabul should be the model “It’s the only safe place in the country … people can get healthcare and education … we need to expand the success of Kabul to the rest of the country.”
This happened at Jack Kingston's Health Care Town Hall, Valdosta, GA, 28 Sep 2009: a veteran was booed for saying respect the president. To Kingston's credit, he shushed the crowd.The speaker was George Rhynes, who is one of the organizers of a rally tomorrow, Saturday 17 October 2009, on the Lowndes County courthouse steps, Valdosta, Georgia. Invitations on
There has been additional troops request from the U.S. and NATO Commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal accompanied by the endorsements of the other highest commands. The request made with a sense of urgency within the military ranks based on variable assessments and conflicting reports from different sources that if the troops request delayed or denied; “it could perhaps lead to the mission failure” in the prolonged war that had continued to deploy troops on that strategy.
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This morning as always I was watching the news and I heard the news about the two terrorists that almost blew up a federal court house and a sky-scraper in Houston, Texas. One came into America When he was fourteen and recently went back for an Al Quada training camp in Afghanistan and returned and made bombs out of things he bought from a beauty store! The other was an illegal immigrent from Iran. God Bless the men and women who found these two and stopped them before billions of HEARTS were broken.
Your Friend,
Erin
September 11, 2009
Please standby for the tribute to the brave citizens, the victims of the catastrophic event that changed the world economy and international security. Also remembering the fire fighters and humanitarian workers, the real heroes selflessly offered their life during the rescue operations on the mournful date.
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This promising new President is so far head and shoulders above the alternative, it is painful to complain bitterly, but bitterly I will. No solution in the Middle East can be solved by occupation, invasion, or military coercion. How my dear President Obama wishes to ignore the wisdom he learned in undergraduate school, I struggle to understand. How well he comprehended the truths shared with him at that time.
What has happened Barack? You were an excellent student. You 'got the picture'. did you lose it somewhere on the walk into the Oval Office? Which UGLY CORPORATION threatened you into falling in line with them? Please be more honorable than to fall to repression by threat of being a 4-year President. What on earth do you think is more honorable--- to follow the wishes of those who elected you, or the be the puppet of the greed and fear-mongers? Please please change course. There is no HOPE AND CHANGE in your middle East policies at present except, thank you for being firmer with Israel, well, a little firmer.
I want to respect you, find you the best President ever. in all history. You are wavering from the track of truly being the people's President. Now you don't have to do much to improve on G.H.W.B., that's true, but you were light-years beyond him at the inauguration----please don't regress. I am worried. How can my Team support you whole-heartedly in 2012? We really care, we are giving our hearts and souls to support you, please don't fail us.
Where is our access to HealthCare REform for all? Public Plan still won't cut it for many. Now we fear the Public Plan will get the ax, too. Are they chewing your heart out? Threatening you? We will rise up in any way you need us to to protect you all we can, just please by the President we hoped we elected!
The US & NATO goal is to stablize Afghanistan so that they can focus on the other important issues. No matter what the outcome of the current election in Afghanistan, the task would be difficult for a stable Afghanistan or even to create the atmosphere where we were just after 9/11 during Afghanistan invasion.
Neither Dr. Abdullah Abdullah nor Karzai can be the solution to Afghanistan stability as a standalone entity, but a complete transformation of government culture where corruption issues have been given the most priorit in the next months and years to come.
Any decision that the US makes on Afghanistan today, it will have the most effect to 2012 election outcome. Unlike the campaign slogan where we build from bottom up in the US, it needs to be built from Top to Bottom in Afghanistan. It will be difficulet, but any difficult task has its risk. Obviously, with the risk comes its award!
Pakistan is strife with rumors of US building a fortress of an embassy to camouflage a military base in the heart of Islamabad and Karachi. Many Pakistanis believe that US wants to destabilize Pakistan and that it’s in the interest of the US to Balkanize Pakistan so that it can secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Many are protesting the 12 embassies that India has set up in Kabul and Pakistani officials have protested that openly claiming that RAW (Indian Intelligence ) is training Afghans to fight Pakistan Talibans. Whatever the truth what can’t be denied is that, Pakistan is sitting in a very precarious position today.
When pressured to root our terrorism from its North, Pakistan had no choice but to send its army to root out Taliban. Pakistan army is fighting its own people to eradicate terrorists from within. That is not an easy task. This not only caused a strain on its meager resources, but also displaced about two million of the poorest people from their homes in the North causing an immense burden on the already weak economy of Pakistan. Thus Pakistan and its people are making huge sacrifices to help the US fight the extremists. What is our government getting in return? The 1.5 billion dollars will trickle into Pakistan through developmental projects, which we’ve all heard about before and which never really have reached the hands of the poor. It could be different this time since there seems to be more oversight of the monies going to Pakistan.
We know that our US government and State department is aware of the corruption that Zardari is tainted with and how his government has done nothing to give “roti,kapra,aur makan” (food, clothing, and shelter) to the common people who stood behind its slogan. In fact, Zardari has made the poor even poorer and the treasury deplete. However, the number of advisors to Zardari keeps increasing, the VIP culture is back as a nuisance and
Basic necessities like electricity and clean water are still non-existent. Despite the lack of progress and abject poverty in Pakistan, the only reason, I remain, hopeful, is that the people elected Zardari and through this extreme suffering during his tenure; they will learn to vote better in the next elections. After all, Americans waited patiently for years to choose a better leader after Bush’s policies alienated Americans from the rest of the world and caused the complete destruction of two countries in the name of bringing democracy, so can Pakistanis.
Then we come to the very important issue of where the money from the Kerry-Lugar Bill will really go and what is Obama’s policy toward Pakistan. . Center for American Progress recently held a meeting of the all the agencies working on AfPak. What was most surprising was that not a single Pakistani was on Holbrooke’s Interagency Team on AfPak. What is even more surprising is that the Senior Defense Advisor to President Obama on Pakistan and Afghanistan is Mr.Vikram Singh. The Senior Advisor on AfPak is Vali Nasr, an Iranian expert on “shiaism”.
Pakistani Americans are considering this as an attempt to exclude them from any policy making for their native country. This is contrary to what the President was saying to the Pakistani community. Candidate Obama told us that he would engage us in policy making that directly affects Pakistan. Who would know Pakistan better than us?
But then why are we excluded from advisory positions? It’s a failure on the part of Pakistan Embassy Washington, and the government of Pakistan, who should have the vision to look out for Pakistani Americans, like the Indians do. Instead, being the strongest bargaining position, Pakistanis are in the weakest position.
We protest this exclusion.
Anila Ali
Teacher, Community Organizer, Journalist, Activist
18845 Tabor Drive,
Irvine, Ca 92603
www.anilaali.com
A few days ago the media was reporting in the news that our forces in Afghanistan had killed a Taliban leader by the name of Mehsud. The reports came with detailed descriptions of the actual terminal event. It seems that Mehsud was spotted on the top of a home, sitting next to his second wife, by one of our Predators, Reapers or White Doves. That last designation is my term for these robotic flyers who fire missiles from beneath their wings. Missiles were launched and the house, with Mehsud and wife, was obliterated.
Are we at war with the Taliban? I thought that we were at war with Al Qaeda. I thought that we went into Afghanistan to get the Al Qaeda cells who had launched 9/11, and, in particular, the cell which contained Osama Ben Ladin. I thought that we fought the elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan to get them out of our way, in order to allow us to reach the followers of Al Qaeda. But then I was also led to believe that, eventually, we were fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq, until we changed the name of the opponents there to "insurgents." Now I just don't know.
Let's assume that we have to be at war with the Taliban. That assumption safely put where we can get back to it, let's take a look at the morality of killing the woman that was with him. We can even marginally presume that the guy on the roof of that building (Mehsud) when the predator struck down with six missiles was the Taliban leader we sought (there are many conflicting reports about that). But I want to write about that woman. Whoever she was. Were we at war with her when we executed her with full, willing and aforeknowledged intent? Nobody seems to care about this poor woman, blown to smithereens. Why not? Why is it that we keep getting reports that our White Doves shower down these missiles on all manner of people living in Afghanistan, and it is okay that many are not combatants at all? Who will cry for this woman?
I went to a party the other night. High class party. Everyone was higher class than I. My attendance was based upon the fact that I can usually be depended upon to engage in interesting discourse. The hostess of the party, when I was at a table deep in discussion about the Iraq war, said these words: "It's a war. Kill them all. Men, women and children. That's what war is. Kill them all." I looked at her. I like her. I want to be invited back to her parties. But I could not help myself. Quite forcefully I encountered her verbally: "I can understand your feelings, but I would like you to understand that this war should then have your husband and children laying here, dead at your feet, for you to have any comprehension of the enormity of what you just said." Even the mildest intimation that violence might be considered to be visited upon her, there in her own home, stopped the place dead for a moment. I still like this woman. I know that she is so very proto-American, however. She has not lived in those cities out there, humped those jungles, slogged across those deserts and certainly not spent any time with any of those wondrous cultures out there all over this planet. Those people are not people to her. Not like her husband and children. They are not even existent enough in her consciousness to be human beings.
They are very human to me. That woman on that roof who was blown to smithereens. That woman probably had a husband and children too. Maybe the husband is dead. But the children? If they survived the huge blast are they not thinking about enrolling in flight officer training as I write this? Or will that come later? I am not sure about that, the survival part, but I am deadly certain about the 'flight school' device I use here to describe the awesome hurt and hatred which will out itself one year soon. Where do you suppose all that emotion is headed?
And now, today, we have Fox and CNN running the same video of a White Dove watching some insurgents somewhere planting a bomb on a highway. The White Dove does what American White Doves do. It blows the living crap out of the insurgent. And it is all so very justified. And it all attempts to cloak a little secret that leaked out earlier in the day. The secret that we have designated fifty drug dealers in Afghanistan to be destroyed by our White Doves, came out this morning. You see, it is the drug dealers who are the sole remaining financiers of the Taliban. This, we are told very forcefully, then shown the video of a I.E.D. placing insurgent being killed again.
And where did we get out list of Taliban-loving drug dealers? Well, from our intelligence. Which takes us right back to the Monterey language school in Monterey, California. That is the language school the military uses to train our people to speak the languages of other countries so we will understand them. Without speaking the language, and isolated in a guerilla environment, we must depend upon local translators to tell us what people are saying. And to tell us the truth about it. How many graduates of Monterey have we turned out over the past few years who speak the languages of Afghanistan? I am willing to bet that the classified number is around ten, maybe twenty. So what we end up with is intelligence based upon what the locals are telling us. Remember those clowns from Iraq who supposedly gave us all that intelligence before this latest Iraqi nightmare? They lied to us time and again, and got paid hundreds of millions for doing it. We didn't find out about the lying for quite some time though. Today, in spite of the payments and lying, the chief-liar-in-charge of that crew is the Oil Minister of the country.
So here we are, killing supposed drug dealers, from the Wings of our Snow White Doves, all over the place. Do those drug dealer's have wives and family living with them? Or traveling with them? And what is the basis for assigning someone to this terminal hit list? The word of some locals, and very probably locals who would like a bit of the power that the person they are reporting on might have. I experienced this in Vietnam, in the field as a combat commander. Only after I was in country long enough to acquire some of the local language was I able to figure out that my "Kit Carson" local scouts were lying to me. That was after, by the way, we had already 'taken out' my scout's political opponents in a nearby village. The interpreters had, of course, indicated that they were V.C. (Viet Cong enemy, for you young people).
Why are we at war with the 'insurgents' in Iraq? Why are we at war with the Taliban? Why are we now killing drug dealers without true accusation or trial? Why have we allowed our assassination teams (as reported by Hersh) to rend and kill people all over the world on the basis of information which is worse than suspect? Why, if America does not like you, do you get visited, then carried away on the wings of Snow White Dove? I damn well think so. The hostess who invited me to that party probably thinks that this result is just fine with her. And I do not expect to be invited back, no matter how witty my 'House-like' commentary might be. But I have a problem with killing people willy nilly across the face of the planet and then expecting that we are not gong to be hated, vilified, and eventually hunted down ourselves.
It is hard for a Marine to say these words: "We must retreat." But retreat we must. We need to get our head and act together again. We need to stop locking up our own homeless, believing our own lies, and blaming the world out there for the problems we have here. If we were mentally healthy, as a culture, we would merely have absorbed the hit we took on 9/11, then made sure we caught up with Osama and his small band. We'd have rebuilt the towers and thumbed our nose at Silverstein in New York, or anybody else who got in our way (but we would not have struck down upon them with one of our White Doves!). With just the two trillion the Iraq and Afghan wars have cost us, and the seven or so years we've wasted, we could have bases upon the Moon, Mars and be running back and forth almost without limit. Now how could would that have been? You think the world might just be going; "God, but those American's are something else!" instead of "Those Yanks are bunch of violent imperialist creeps." And, finally, we would not have a huge crop of our young people coming home to kill themselves, or live their lives homelessly, drunk, drug-addicted and unemployed.
http://www.jamesstraussauthor.com
http://www.themastodons.com
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I must comment on the idea that pulling down our $100 billion in foreign aid to help other initiatives in the US is somehow going to be “good” for America. This argument pops up every time the US Mindset returns to focus on the disastrous budget deficits we have been running for nearly 2 generations now. Unfortunately, like the ups and downs of our economy, all discussion related to the deficit dies as soon as the economy turns the corner and people go back to focusing on making money in the latest paper bubble. It is also unfortunate that these incredible "peace time" budget deficits do little more than expose the underlying reality that the US economy has become so reliant on consumer spending and non manufacturing "industries" that our bubble to burst cycles have become more frequent (about every 10 years) and more dramatic. Obviously, with the economy based on businesses that have no physical infrastructure and or physical output capacity (the production of intangible products) they are able to grow rapidly when able to exploit the latest economic / financial gimmick and can just as rapidly shrink when that "event" is played out. Consumption as we all know is primarily of foreign made products of all varieties. Getting back to the argument that somehow reducing our "foreign aid" and bringing back a few billion dollars back to the US as having any tangible ability to "enhance" our economic development. This is a completely false argument and even when foreign aid has been reduced during tough economic times, it quickly returns during boom times and is usually a greatly celebrated event stamped by whoever happens to be in the White House as an example of the how "generous American" people are willing to back whatever pop-charity is prevalent at that time. Before I go on, I will preface my argument with my own jaded view of the machine that functions in Washington of ex-piece-corp / lobbyist / international "aid" how to make $200k a year "non-profits" with "do gooder" figurehead cronies "leaders" related to the various politicians, lobbyist, ex-politicians etc., all of whom are very good at raking money out of the Federal Government to feed themselves using their idealistic agenda. These many folk are professional and very good at making carriers for themselves, backed by US Gov money under the guise of "international aid" and normally spend most of their time traveling the world, speaking, living in posh neighborhoods of DC and otherwise justifying their idealistic agenda to other folks who look just like them or aspire to create their "careers" picking up in their footprints. The vast majority of US Foreign "aid" goes in the pockets of these folks and their extended networks and little of it gets anywhere near the end "user" or "target" of the program or individuals it was designed to "help". I could go on but you get the point. In addition, the "International Aid" machine in Washington and associated labyrinth of non-profits (most often not of international focus) are also often the best way to pay for access to the political machine. "Give $50k to my wife's / sister's / friend's / ex-business partner's / other relative's charity and we can talk" kind of politics. Having said all of that, I will go back to the argument that somehow reducing foreign aid is going to better our economy if we redirect that cash. We have directly spent since our pointless invasion of Iraq no less than $1 Trillion. I remember Bush's speech during the height of the financial crises when talk of $700 billion to bail out financial institutions was being thrown around and thinking, "George, why don't you just say it? You know how much $700 billion is, you spent more than that battling your fictitious "enemies" on the other side of the planet for the past 5 years." George could have just said, "T-ain't anything America. Just deal with it. I know the war was a great excuse to use my access to the largest "bank" on the planet to write checks to my friends and buddies, esp. the ones who lost so much money in the .dot com crash and Enron like debacles of the early part of my presidency, but this, well, now we have another "crises" primarily created by my friends and I got no nation to invade so please excuse me if I just hand this money over directly to them this time!" Well, that is reality you know. So what about "foreign aid"? What about pulling our vast military presence out of Japan, 2/3 of it out of Korea and Europe? What about exiting Iraq? Can we get that Trillion Dollars (plus the estimated Trillion or so legacy costs) back? Never. What about the pointless war in Afghanistan? Does anybody ever ask themselves what the real long term ramifications of a decade war against Muslim extremist around the globe will have on the long term desire of these folks to one day actually organize themselves some kind of multi-nation alliance and truly threaten other nations? I mean really, right now and for the years going back to the beginning of radical Muslim movements against nations outside of Israel (the true root of all this mess), was there ever a time in modern history they had the potential to do anything more than cause a bit of terror by blowing something up with some rudimentary explosive devises or come up with more creative ways to use our own technology against us like in the 9.11 "attack"? Come on? Help me out here. How many Americans ever went to bed worried that some "army" from the middle east would invade their shores? We and a few other developed nations feed our "allied" Muslim nation friends all of their military technology for crying out loud. These folks cannot even make a microphone or CD player in their own nations let alone a computer or sophisticated guidance system, navy fleet, air force or any other mass weapon arsenal necessary to threaten other nations. Isn't it true the primary reason we don't want Iran to develop the technology to enrich uranium is that we really don't want any of the nations on the planet that do not align themselves with our capitalist / "democratic" value system to have the ability to create ANY technology or products which could head them in the direction of being able to create real weapons of mass destruction like we do? And so with all this, is taking $25 or $50 billion out of our "foreign aid" going to solve anything? We are directing hundreds of billions of dollars every year to our global military infrastructure; billions more are spent subsidizing our agricultural and agricultural exports; billions more are being spent / or credited to companies for the removal of fossil fuels from all corners of the planet; billions of dollars are being sucked out of our economy, from each individual, by companies operating within pathetically designed regulation / lack of regulation of our energy companies and infrastructure; billions of dollars are being sucked out of the American taxpayer every year for the construction of and maintenance of a transportation infrastructure designed specifically for the single most destructive product in use on the entire planet, the automobile; billions of dollars in energy literally escape right in the atmosphere by the pathetically designed and geographically dispersed regulation of building standards that allow millions of structures to be built annually with the environmental soundness of a mid 20th century box; billions of dollars are being spent incarcerating millions of Americans each year instead of educating them (with more of these dollars going into private hands each year);billions of dollars are being sucked out of the wealth of people, their pension plans and their governments around the planet monthly by the vast unregulated financial industries that have learned to rake as much cash out of the planet's financial wealth as possible with no nation, government, regulatory authority or power to answer to but the pursuit of as much wealth as humanly possible... I could go on about how many ways $25-$50 billion a year are completely wasted, lost, sucked into the coffers of companies riding the "free economic" poorly regulated and wasteful economy we have created but I will rest here.
Suffice to say, any person who decides to go after the politically easy, populace target of "foreign aid" when the true causes of our financial mess and destructive economic model lies right in front of us, is only succumbing to a failed logic and worse, exposing themselves to a deeper sense of "America is right and great and we should look after ourselves even if much of what we do economically and militarily is pathetically harmful to the planet and humanity in general."
Has everyone in Washington lost their mind, I wonder? I would not approve 106 Million for war efforts let alone making that billions. Who are they trying to kid? It is time to seriously get these guys under control and give them a serious dose of reality!
We all read of the mismangement of the other war money and they expect us to trust them with more? I do not think so!
Obama, please stand up and say no to this insanity! Until they can account for every penny of where the other money went they should not be allowed to get any more. If I am reading the news right it will take 80 billion to last June-Sept of this year. Where on earth does the money go?
Forget the war profiteers/arms dealers and remember Americans!
Maria
2010 Year of the Bible by Paul Broun AP/Photo
Happy New Year of The Bible 2010 by Paul Broun
On our countdown to a new year in 2010, Paul Broun (R-Ga.) wants everyone to ring in the “Year of the Bible”. He wants to pass legislation to honor the good book. Opposition is strong in the Democratic party, but whats the big deal? We’re already burning them suckers in Afghanistan. I wrote a post about it, and got negative feedback from every dem, saying I’m a GOP’r in disguise. In fact, I’m just a student pointing out similarities between different governments past and present. That isn’t choosing sides at all. When people see a political blog, they are automatically trying to figure out what party I am affiliated with. None. Well, whoever decides to pay me the most. Just kidding(That’s illegal for all you kids out there, no selling votes.) Sorry for ranting but I’ve been enraged at some of my readers that just don’t get the whole picture. Someone said I’m a Christian that hates America. No, I’m a Christian that loves America; the thought of America more like it. It used to stand for something, and all I see and read is how far it has gone from what our forefathers set forth to achieve. I am not ashamed of being an American. Our differences are what makes this country unique. I say instead of the “Year of the Bible”, we just go with the Chinese astrology and name it after an animal. Or we can ring in the New Year as a world united. All across Washington people are joking about what year its going to be after that. Year of the encyclopedia? Quran? Las Vegas escort Pamphlets? Whatever the year, I’ll be ringing it in with a smile, knowing I’m in a country that spends too much time on a stupid idea. Hey Paul Broun, think of a way to get your ass back to work on important things.
An die-hard believer in Obama's policies, I must say I was a little disappointed myself at his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. I wrote a pice in Pakistan Link and I add that to my blog as well. I was surprised to see so many supporters of the President protesting on Wilshire Blvd. while he was here in L.A. fundraising for DNC.
President's promise to us was that the war in Iraq would end in sixteen months but that seems unlikely with the present state of affairs. that leaves supporters like me, a little disheartened. We have destroyed two countries and taken them back to dark ages; we still have not been able to come up with a viable plan for both countries. For the sake of national security, the military plans aren't being shared with us, I hope business is not getting back to the way it was in D.C?
I was moderating a forum arranged by a non-profit organization, COPAA and a few Pakistani Students
organizations of Ca. The hope that was lit up like lightening when Obama took oath of office, dimmed a little when I heard, a very moderate professor say:
"I feel President Obama is going back on his promises to end wars."
The reason his comment resonates with me is that this American professor has traveled all over the Muslim world and is very aware of the ground realities. Another professor came to President's defense and
reminded the audience that he has done a lot in a short time; he is building bridges with the Muslim world which no President has done before.
As a Pakistani American, I urge the government of President Obama to hear us out. US governments meet officials in power in Pakistan, some of them very controversial and tainted with corruption, and they make deals with them. This makes the Pakistanis think that America makes deals only because of self-interest and forgets the ideals of her founding fathers, liberty, peace justice for all.
If America really wants to impact change and spread the ideals of democracy in Pakistan, it must sow the seeds of democracy by forcing political parties to hold elections within to choose their leaders. Pakistan is an inheritance of the landlords like the Chaudhrys and the Bhuttos. They are feudals, they own the land that the 40% of the iliterate Pakistani grow crops and live on. They are like the serfs in medieval times, they own allegience to these landlords and they have no choice but to stamp a vote for their mostly corrupt feudal lord. If we really want to democratize Pakistan, after the war on extremism is over, we must pressure Pakistani governement to have their political parties hold elections for their leadership. Why did Zardari become the chairman of his party? The old party big wigs of PPP are still unhappy with that decision.
These are the issues that trouble the minds of the young people in pakistan. That we Americans, want to impose democracy but only want leaders that are sympathetic to the west and have no respect for their choices. There are parties like the MQM that have leaders that have risen from the sheer hard work and merit, we must promote that thinking if we want to sincerely democratize Pakistan.
The Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and the northwestern regions of Pakistan, particularly the swat valley have proven deadlier for the ruling powers in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United Sates due to the inevitable civilian casualties and displacement arising from the incessant shelling supposedly targeting the Taliban militants.
According to the Pakistani government,
Further info @ http://www.padminiarhant.com
