Letters to the Editor
Martin Gifford
Published Letters: 150
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Ondelette - From Afganistan to Iraq, From Pakistan to Iran
[Read the article: Peggy Noonan is a serious "grown-up"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ondelette wrote: "...they changed the subject from Afghanistan to Iraq, and they started the day after 9/11. Now the desired change is from Pakistan to Iran, and it's started the day after 12/27."
Yes.
And part of the reason the assassination happened is that Bush busied himself and the military with Iraq rather than finishing off Afghanistan and making Afghanistan the shining light of democracy for the region.
Bin Laden and co are probably in Pakistan!
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Glenn: Why not write a book called "US Government Lawbreaking 2000-2008"?
[Read the article: Oligarchical decay]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn,
Why don't you write a book called "US Government Lawbreaking 2000-2008"?
It's your area of expertise. You'd just have to be sure to maintain an objective tone and clearly counter the arguments for lawbreaking. And point out how 9/11 was used to do the lawbreaking and maintain the lawbreaking. And how the US has lost moral authority.
Pointing out government lawbreaking is very "In Your Face".
It would be a hard book to ignore.
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Spreading Happiness is the Best Way to Increase Security
[Read the article: The bipartisan consensus on U.S. military spending]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]High military spending just makes America look like a dominator, and it maintains fear and anger which are bad for security.
Building moral authority is a better way to increase security. America should have gone into Rwanda and Sudan rather than Iraq. Then the humanitarian argument for Iraq would have been more credible and would have garnered more support.
But...
Spreading happiness is the very best way to increase security. Happy people do not want war.
The neocons have it wrong. The reason previous empires fell is that they failed to progress to spreading happiness, not because they failed to maintain military strength.
To read more on spreading happiness for security see my online article at http://www.worldwidehappiness.org (or click on my name).
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walter_map, Cheney and the Neocons Want Worldwide Happiness!!!
[Read the article: The bipartisan consensus on U.S. military spending]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Walter wrote: “Cheney wants war, and he's very happy.
Cheney doesn’t look happy to me. He is certainly living way below his potential for happiness, and if someone with the keys to his heart (his wife?) could point that out to him, then he might change.
“The people can be dragged into war whether they're 'happy' or not…”
Our greater potential for happiness includes activating our intelligence. In other words, the happier you are, the more intelligent you should be, so you will be less likely to be dragged into war. Most people’s intelligence is held back by divisiveness – us vs them.
“Empires have fallen because of a conjunction of many reasons, mostly related, either directly or indirectly, to the fact that in the long run empires cost more than they're worth.”
Yes, but empires start as the quest for security and happiness. Those in power fail to realise that security and happiness depend on the security and happiness of everyone so they stop at national security and happiness at the expense of subjugated peoples who inevitably revolt because they are unhappy.
“Neither does greed, or morality, or any other common motivation, but only power for the sake of power.
Power is never really for the sake of power. Everything we do is ultimately our best guess at what will bring us happiness given the information we have available.
I think Neocons want to spread happiness around the world, it’s just that their method is based on bad information (Strauss). They think “What’s good for America is good for the world.”
http://www.worldwidehappiness.org
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Progressives Need to Set the Agenda - rather than merely reacting to neocon agendas
[Read the article: The bipartisan consensus on U.S. military spending]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]walter_map,
“Neoconservatism is quite explicitly about power, and nothing but power, in the hands of an exclusive elite.”
But they imagine power = happiness. Every human action is ultimately aimed at achieving or maintaining some form of happiness.
“You need to lay off the happy pills. They're making you blind.”
Could it be that you have so committed to attacking rightwingers and neocons that you must rebut everything positive about them automatically i.e. without thinking? You strike me as being on a team, and the goal is to win, and nothing is negotiable… much like the neocons.
“Keep in mind, when debating right-wingers, that the facts are against them, as are logic and reason.”
Yes. Right-wingers think simply which gives them confidence for action and that makes them attractive to voters. They look like doers. Men of action.
“It puts them at a distinct disadvantage.”
If we are smarter than them, then why do they win 50% of the time? I think it’s because we get lost in attacking their positions, which makes us look negative, rather than proactively suggesting creative, intelligent, progressive policy alternatives.
“…nobody wants to be accused of being 'weak on defense'. So you have to come up with an effective counter to the accusation."
Yes. There are many counters, and those who want change need to spend more time on those counters than on critiquing right-wing policies.
pluege,
“we live off a puffed up fantasy dream that we single handily won WWII and have extended that to a game of one-upmanship that is nearly incomprehensible in its perversion and totally/completely unjustifiable - it is pure national insanity.”
Exactly. Patriotism is extreme in America. Schoolkids get it brainwashed into them. In movies which propagates the illusion, whenever the military goes into action, it is with incredible Swiss precision. And America always comes to the rescue when there’s a catastrophe.
Then we see the reality of Hurricane Katrina. And it is my belief that all the talk about “security” since 9/11 is really about America’s self-esteem which was punctured by the events of that day.
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Clinton going down for voting for war is great news! (karrsic, Jeb Bush signed PNAC letter.)
[Read the article: Worthless chatter]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm surprised GG and people here are not more excited about Obama beating Clinton.
Clinton voted for war for political gain but now it looks like she's going down for doing that.
That's wonderful news!
It feels refreshing and it's nice poetic justice.
And Obama is against telco immunity. That's great too!
karrsic wrote: "Bush was no neocon..."
Bush's brother Jeb signed the PNAC letter.