Letters to the Editor
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natural force or personal choice
In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known.
Thomas Malthus
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Recalcitrant
Bush tossed in the trash the national security assessment produced by the exiting democratic leaders who warned that terrorism was the greatest threat facing America.
The Bush administration (still distracted with the celebration of the largest rip-off in American history - the tax-cut,) was locked into the idea that the best way to shovel tons of money to defense contractors was the Star Wars gambit of the Reagan years.
The neocons changed their minds when they saw the profit potential in invading Iraq. Iraq also exists as a miltary choke point between the radicals in Saudi Arabia, the theocracy in Iran, the dictatorship in Syria, and the monarchy in Jordan. Iraq blocks easy access for the movement of supplies and troops between the Arab nations and the Persians in Iran.
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Bob Graham said
...that if the intelligence agencies were just doing one of their jobs, reading the newspapers of other countries, they could have read about the 9/11 plot in articles written for the major Egyptian newspaper before the event took place.
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Think Big, Think Long-Term!!!
There were many replies to me and I thank you. I have read them and saved them all to my computer. But there’s too much to address individually so I’ll just address the main themes I pick up.
You all keep proving Slaughter’s point. You are progressives, so start progressing rather than saying you can’t fix important things! Saying that no one will listen to us is pathetic.
What’s the point of being progressives, if you keep saying that ending war and terrorism isn’t possible?! It doesn’t get more basic than stopping people from killing each other! We just need to expand the basic idea of governance and policing from the local level to the international level. It’s the same principle. Ending mass killing isn’t a controversial goal, so we can get agreement from every nation at least in principle.
The reason America is falling like all past empires is that it failed to take the final step of spreading happiness. You know what? Bush was proposing a more secure and happier world. It is only the method that was, ahem, incorrect. On the up side, Bush, 9/11, Iraq, and Katrina have exposed the weaknesses of America, and now all those weaknesses can be addressed by Obama. And people here. Right? But I don’t hear it happening.
The pre-war and post-war plans and articulations of the plans were/are unsatisfactory. Do you really think that Obama can withdraw troops from Iraq without largescale bloodshed? You've got to do better than that. You can do better than that.
Your plans didn’t get through. Progressives are supposed to be smarter than conservatives, yet look how successful the conservatives are in getting their plans implemented. You need to do like the PNAC people did: set a long term goal and get into key positions and take opportunities. Saying it’s all hopeless is futile.
You know what the alternative is? More of the same old cycle: a conservative comes in and takes you backwards a bit, then a progressive takes you forward a bit. I can see it now: Obama will come in, things won’t improve in Iraq, the economy will finish its tanking cycle, and the Republicans will blame the Democrats.
Get positive and constructive. Hammer a stake into the ground and say, “We are progressives and this is our plan.” Obama has the charisma, you guys have the intelligence. You can do it.
Here am I in Australia, at the bottom of the barrel, but I’m trying to improve things with my book Worldwide Happiness. I have no money and a quarter of the intellect of you guys (Greenwald, Ondelette, DCLaw1 and co), yet I’m plugging away trying to make a difference. You probably are too, but gee, can you start thinking big and long term? Please? You are Americans after all. The reason I'm interested in American politics is that America is willing to take leadership. It thinks big. It gets things done.
No wonder the right and the media call Democrats and Progressives whiners, whingers, do-nothing, complainers etc. But this is a blog, so maybe whining handwringing do-nothing behaviour is the purpose of it.
The irony is that Slaughter’s comment was exactly right, and just about every statement made in response has only served to prove her point.
Don't let America sink.
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Psychopathy.
is IS the new norm. If you are not a psychopath, then you probably need to seek psychiatric help because you are way out of sync with the culture, my friend.
Here have a bottle of happy pills. Now shut up while we get our war on. Remember to vote for Obama because Hillary is too shrill and McCain is too old to properly represent the Empire to our future victims and current creditors.
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But as any logic teacher knows, ...
"... arguments stand on fall on their own merits. Don't believe me because I teach logic: believe me only when I give a good argument. " -- Jkalos
Exactly so.
I notice both (all?) sides in American politics spend enormous energy attacking the man rather than the argument. Why? Effective political writing or speech making is an exercise in persuasion, wit, and rhetoric, and more; not just logic. In fact, I have come to believe politics in this country is marketing in its worst sense.
Somewhere in all the yelling we lost sight of the fact (if we could ever see it) that most players are not going to be totally truthful, and we do not teach the young how to recognize propaganda, demagoguery, or marketing.
(and so, I am back to the education sub-thread)
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Thanks Che
I'm glad you found the comment enlightening, although in a rush I didn't check grammar & spelling.
More meaningful to me was the one I posted here:
http://tinyurl.com/2rjkjo
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RMP
I doubt anyone will disagree with me that military troops in WWII and those serving in the current war have both received overwhelming respect from the American public.
The "respect" is a parsec wide and an angstrom deep.
At least two years ago I noted on a local board that the "support the troops" stickers and magnets that were on every car and truck here at the beginning of the Iraq invasion were gone.
The only reply I got back; "The only people those stickers supported was those who made them".
Actual respect for the troops would have precluded something like the Crawford Long debacle, the public simply would not have stood for it. The entire nation would have stood up and shrieked in rage at that debasement of our troops.
Nothing of the sort happened.
Actual respect for the troops would preclude their coffins returning under cover of night, hidden away like something of which we are ashamed.. The public would not stand for it.
Just look at the way our "real" hero ,Ronald Reagan, and then contrast it with the way the troops are treated.
The "respect" I see looks a lot more like apathy than anything else.
If the public had actually "respected" the troops then they would not have allowed the neocon civilians to overrule General Shinseki and go into Iraq woefully unprepared and vastly undermanned.