United States has bigger problems than the war on terror
Climate change, peak oil, scarce water, diminishing food production, a predatory health-care system, huge national debt and world recession are bigger problems than America's fear-mongering, soul-destroying "war on terror."
Our only means of creating real wealth -- the machinery, knowledge and expertise to manufacture goods -- was shipped overseas after Americans facilitated their own fleecing by electing politicians who hated government "regulation" of business. Corporate outsourcing and looting of America began under Ronald Reagan as a deliberate, organized process financed by wealthy business interests, cloaked in "family values" and legitimized by right-wing "think tanks."
Our foreign policy is based on the premise that military force is justified to steal the world's dwindling oil resources. That Islamists -- who sit on that oil-- are evil and must be attacked before they attack us. Americans are so scared they believe nations like Iran are crazy enough to send a few missiles sputtering into Israel (possessing 80 nuclear missile warheads) or America (9,900 nuclear warheads).
The Bush Administration's humiliating settlement with North Korea demonstrates that weaker nations are wise to develop nuclear weapons to prevent the U.S. from attacking them!
When George W. Bush became president oil was $27 a barrel. The four U.S. oil companies Saddam Hussein kicked out of Iraq 30 years ago were just awarded no-bid contracts in occupied Iraq. Obviously militarization as an energy security policy has been disastrous for everyone except the energy companies.
The presidential candidates promise stability in Iraq -- but a million lives and a trillion dollars after the reign of George the Simple we'll be lucky if Iraq becomes half as stable and terrorist-free as it was under Saddam.
For Bush-Cheney, "stability" always meant permanent American military bases to corral oil supplies. But Iraq has rejected the proposed long-term American-Iraqi hydrocarbon "security pact precisely because it would mean a humiliating permanent occupation ("Iraqis say US wants 58 bases, air space," Daily News, June 10).
OK, the economy is wrecked and the government is lying -- but at least the homeland hasn't been significantly attacked since Sept. 11, 2001, say Bush apologists. By that logic we could also say the homeland wasn't severely attacked until George W. Bush become president.
We will probably be attacked again. Who knows how many "detainees" are being held in "black sites"-- secret prisons the U.S. has scattered around the globe. The McClatchy papers recently published an excellent investigative series explaining how U.S. imprisonment and torture of innocent people actually creates terrorists.
We commit other unspeakable horrors. In 2006 -- with coerced U.N. approval -- U.S. military forces supported the overthrow of a reasonably honest, moderate and popular Islamic government in Somalia (falsely labeled "terrorist"
.And guess what -- estimates are that 30 percent of U.S. oil will come from Africa within 10 years. Apparently oil companies thought they could deal better with a corrupt government of warlords.
Understandably an armed resistance developed and a terrible humanitarian crisis is occurring. In Somalia the U.S. sanctions slaughter or displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians for oil. There is a blood additive in our gasoline.
So where are America's "moral" leaders? Most remain silent while our government shoots missiles through doorways, imprisons and tortures innocent civilians and supports dictators who murder and impoverish their own citizens (like Nigeria) to provide our oil.
Right-wing religionists, however (when they are not busy sniffing out sexual sins), are right there with the corporate power, political influence and military force. Our petroleum wars are well-chaplained because they inflict suffering upon the feared rival -- Islam.
Americans are in a moral coma. Only rising gasoline and food prices have interrupted their consumer feeding frenzy. National bankruptcy, human slaughter and secret prisons are OK -- as long as there is gas in the tank, food in the belly and the news is "good."
Americans calculate the manhood of presidential candidates by their willingness to blow up people for oil. There is no empathy for the starving poor or slaughtered innocents. To be truly moral is to be called "weak." Lies are truths if shaded just right or believed real hard.
It's the morality, stupid!
