Letters to the Editor
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Oh my.
I'm old enough to vividly remember how the Dept. of Defense, in its annual report to the nation, always presented the dire consequences of being unprepared to combat the Soviet Union. We have been propagandized to believe that the external threat is ominous and disaster is imminent, and that only having vast military power will protect us. A reasonable person could ask: is this traditional scenario accurate? Are we safer? Has our vast military power worked to make us , and the rest of the world safer?
I believe this is a very difficult question to answer with certainty, but my opinion is that the answer is no. The military mindset blinds us to the very real but difficult advantages that come from taking a primarily diplomatic and economic approach. If we used our vast resources of money, and the wealth of expertise all of our NGO groups possess, think of the real benefits we could provide to regions all around the world.
Imagine how we could help third world countries by providing cell phone services, simple medical clinics, basic infrastructure improvements such as cleaner water and effective waste disposal. The irony is that we really know how to do these things well, yet our money and efforts seem to go to providing weapons and attempts to eradicate illicit drug production.
What we have is an American lead, but worldwide paucity of imagination and lack of good will. We have ultimately a crisis of the spirit, where we would rather kill our "enemies" than operate out of the principles of respect and consideration for all of humanity. The truly sad thing is that we have forgotten the basic principles contained in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.President Bush and friends are just a particularly egregious example of shortsightedness and ill will.
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Sabotage?
That was a mighty big pipe that burst in Manhattan today. I'm just sayin' .... it seems this action happened right after ratcheting up the terror talk and Chertoff's gut rumbling and Bush's claim that the unpopular war in Iraq is necessary because the people fighting us on Iraq are "the same people who attacked us on 9/11.".