That Iraq is a quagmire is certain, That Afghanistan is even more of a quagmire, is even more certain. These days, however, I get the feeling that the real quagmire we are experiencing is right here in the good ole USA. We have the met the quagmire and the quagmire is us.
The TV News: At the time, it seemed like a good idea - the 24 hour news channel. In fact, what it has turned out to be is a business looking to create a market for itself. There is very little news and a lot of opinion and the opinion is not necessarily thoughtful, it is commercial, and therefore, not as thoughtful, because thoughtful does not sell like radical, angst and anger producing, out of somebody's gut expressions that parade as opinions but really are just self commercials, trying to sell oneself to the public so that your ratings go up and your salary gets more ridiculous. So, what we get is concentration on one or two stories at a time; depending upon which story can produce the best ratings.
Who can really say that the AIG salary bonuses is the most important story of the last week. Really, in the big mix of things that we need to understand, address and resolve, the bonuses don't make much of a difference, but the majority of "news" time has been spent on the AIG story. Meanwhile, Lou Dobbs is tearing down most of the institutions in the nationa, Hannity is yelling who knows what (we all know what - it comes down to about two things normally - the democrats are wrong and gays and lesbians are subverting the country), and Nancy Grace is overscrutinizing every bizarre legal and police matter she can get her hands on. It's a quagmire because none of it nits on the matters about reality and the making of history that are helpful to constructing some kind of better society or even just understanding the world in which we live.
The Congress: Instead of looking into many matters that need to see some light and resolving a lot of national problems which go chronically unsolved, the Congress is engaged in posturing for the next election. So, we also get AIG and other sideline issues as the major meal served up by our representatives. Instead, we ought to have a full out debate on how to stimulate the alternative energy sector of the economy. This would be helpful. This might actually solve a real problem.
The President: I have to admit that the President seems like the only one who is actually focuses on the real job - solving the vast problems which plague our society. Almost every day or every other day, we get a new action out of the White House or some aspect of the executive branck of government. The Obama Administration may be wrong on some of the solutions, but they are actually working on solutions, not on trying to win an aelection, sell a commercial on the news channel or posture for looking good in front of the public. But the president faces the Congress/Media Quagmire.
The Private Sector: These area bunch of cry babies from the financial/banking sector to the major manufacturers. They all made millions and then when their decisions of greed led to economic recession, they want a bailout. The small businsess may be the exception as they need to actually perform a real service or make a real product that somebody needs to survice. But the big ones are just personal ATMs for the rich and greedy. The private sectors opposes everything that could help the public because it means taxes, yet they get more tax relief than the poor - just take medicare, for instance, which, in fact, is a get rich quick scheme for the pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry. If we didn't have medicare, they all would have 30% less clients. Since Jimmy Carter we knew that we needed a better, more fuel efficient car or an alternative energy car. Nobody got to work on it despite a huge amount of profit since that time. Where was it invested? The Private sector is a quagmire because it has come to believe that the nation exists to serve them, not them to serve the national interest.
The Churches: I really should not put the church close in category to the above as they have so little influence anymore. The reasons for this are many and increasing each day. Mostly they are caused by the quagmire the church created for itself when it decided to be "successful" instead of "faithful". But is it noteworthy, at least, that the self described "most Christian" nation on earth, heres littel or nothing from the churches on the most important issues of the day, except the usual banter of the Christian Right on its pet issues. The church has become obsolete because it does not speak up on the issues that any simple persons can see should be the issues that bother Christians (people who have some connection to Jesus) like poverty, abuse of children, war, discrimination and the issues of justice that have to do with providing access to those who have been marginated by our society. The churches do not speak up because it would damage their image of themselves as "successful". Instead, what we get from the churches is a steady diet of scandals where the church and God are being used to deceive the public, manipulate believers and abuse those who come to the church for healing. Oh, wait a minute, the churches have united recently to oppose anything the President might want to do to reduce the charitable donation deduction for the very rich. now there is an issue worthy of the church's attention!!!
The people of the US: I will get in trouble on this one. First, the disclaimer: there are many fine, upstanding, beautiful, intelligent people in the United States. Nevertheless, as a group, we lack focus and understanding that would lead us to take actions that would ensure a "good" life for us. We let Bush lead us into trillions of debt and tow wars not worthy winning. We still insist that all our politicians tell us that we are the "best, last hope of humankind", "the greatest nation on the earth" when these are not only arrogant, egotistical lies, but also absolutely meaningless in tersm of the struggle for a "good" life. These are things that "brain dead" nations like to hear. Instead, the "people" shoudl want to get to the bottom on things - like why we can go the moon and beyond, but we cannot produce a solar cell that makes solar energy economically viable, or why we don't use the vast millions of acres of land we have for building solar or wind energy plants that would essentially guarantee us energy self sufficiency for as long as we can see into the future and produce a less contaminated air to breath and water to drink. Instead, we sit around saying it is impossible to go much faster on the development of clean energy. We put up with a system of health care that denies 40 million people health care insurance. We accept that if doctors cannot be absolutely richer than 95% of the population then health care would decline. In short, we are part of the quagmire because we are complacent dupes of a system that uses our indifference and our fear of losing all we have to manipulate our opinion and repress what would be a normal tendency to protest and to demand better from our leaders.
We have clear goals to achieve: get the economy moving; develop clean and renewable energy sources, find a way to live in peace; quality health care for all. These are not huge problems for a creative and resourceful people, but they require that for a moment we give our attention to actually developing solutions instead of watching "reality" TV which has nothing to do with reality and of finding sources of informationa and analysis which actually are objective instead of calculated to make a profit or a name for someone.
Until that time when the American people demand information that is realiable, news that actually helps us understand the world around us and solutions from the private, goverment and public sectors, we will continue to be dragged down by the quagmire because the quagmire is us.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
HURRAH! AND SHAME ON US!
The victory of the FMLN candidate for president, Mauricio Funes, in Sunday's election marks a huge step forward in the democratic processes that have been developing since the end of the civil war in 1993. It is also part of a continent-wide phenomena of the public abandoning their faith in the conservative, free-market, trickle down ideologies which have guided the Americas for the last decades and reaching out to the social democratic ideas of a state that has at least as much concern for providing education and health care to the public as it does for protecting the interests of capital.
At the same time, it should not be forgotten that this victory for the people and for democracy came at heavy expense, not only in El Salvador but throughout the continent. But, El Salvador will serve just fine as an example. More than 30 years ago, the labor unions, students and emerging middle class of El Salvador asked for democratic reform in their country. The response of the ruling elite was repression and when the protests against the ruling elite's intransigence did not let up, repression became full out war against its own people. This would not have been possible except for the support of the United States in dollars, military aid and military advisors placed in the country to train up a brutal military and police force responsible for tens of thousands of civilian deaths and the displacement of thousands of refugees to neighborhing countries. In the end, the government of El Salvador and the United States, under pressure from the international community had to sign a peace agreement which essentially guaranteed the reform that was originally demanded two decades prior.
The end result, in El Salvador, is a liberal alternative to the heavy handed, one-sided rule of the conservative elites which will have to prove its ability to govern the same way that governments around the world in democratic countries do - by producing good results for the public. The cost was tremendous because of the shameful support given by our country to those who resisted the inevitable.
The FMLN victory does not ensure the left with a free hand in El Salvador, it only guarantees them some possibility to demonstrate their ability to govern. What the victory should teach the United States and all others who are watching is that using violence to repress laudable human aspirations does not serve to detain these aspirations from being realized, it only destroys lives. El Salvador should be a reminder that war is not an answer to the legitimate aspirations and demands of a people who want only to exercise their rights and have their dignity respected.
It can be hoped that the Obama administration will do all that it can to encourage these govenments of El Salvador to remain true to their political platforms instead of continuing the Bush administration's policies of opposing those governments that do not bow down to US desires. It will make a huge difference for Latin America, for us and for the world if we get it right this time.
At the same time, it should not be forgotten that this victory for the people and for democracy came at heavy expense, not only in El Salvador but throughout the continent. But, El Salvador will serve just fine as an example. More than 30 years ago, the labor unions, students and emerging middle class of El Salvador asked for democratic reform in their country. The response of the ruling elite was repression and when the protests against the ruling elite's intransigence did not let up, repression became full out war against its own people. This would not have been possible except for the support of the United States in dollars, military aid and military advisors placed in the country to train up a brutal military and police force responsible for tens of thousands of civilian deaths and the displacement of thousands of refugees to neighborhing countries. In the end, the government of El Salvador and the United States, under pressure from the international community had to sign a peace agreement which essentially guaranteed the reform that was originally demanded two decades prior.
The end result, in El Salvador, is a liberal alternative to the heavy handed, one-sided rule of the conservative elites which will have to prove its ability to govern the same way that governments around the world in democratic countries do - by producing good results for the public. The cost was tremendous because of the shameful support given by our country to those who resisted the inevitable.
The FMLN victory does not ensure the left with a free hand in El Salvador, it only guarantees them some possibility to demonstrate their ability to govern. What the victory should teach the United States and all others who are watching is that using violence to repress laudable human aspirations does not serve to detain these aspirations from being realized, it only destroys lives. El Salvador should be a reminder that war is not an answer to the legitimate aspirations and demands of a people who want only to exercise their rights and have their dignity respected.
It can be hoped that the Obama administration will do all that it can to encourage these govenments of El Salvador to remain true to their political platforms instead of continuing the Bush administration's policies of opposing those governments that do not bow down to US desires. It will make a huge difference for Latin America, for us and for the world if we get it right this time.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Afghanistan, More Than a Quagmire
THE QUAGMIRE IN AFGHANISTAN IS MORAL…..AND POLITICAL……AND MILITARY….AND NATIONAL!!
Some would argue that in war and politics there is no morality, only winners and losers. But, at least officially, on paper and enjoying international or global accpeptance, there are some moral standards that we agree on that prevents humanity from slipping totally into the deep abyss of human immorality: treaties, conventions, protocols, statements, understandings – a network of morally based agreements that build a quilt work of commitments that normally operate in the protection not only of speciific populations who, in war and politics, are unprotected, but also of all of us so that wars do not just become one huge crime against humanities instead of conflicts in which there are crimes against humanity committed.
The Old Testament teaches that if the nation acts unjustly in its dealings with the neighbors, the nation will suffer negative consequences and that to renew their ability to take actions which are just and, thus, favor the nation, repentance is needed. Otherwise, the quagmire deepens and hope for actually escaping the ultimate consequences are lessened. Even if you are not a person who gives much credibility to Scriptures, you have to admit that history could be interpreted to teach us the same lesson.
The quagmire that awaits President Obama in Afghanistan is extreme because he is entering a conflict which was wrong from the beginning. It was morally wrong, it was politically wrong and it was militarily wrong. And, then we did it again in Iraq…I belive that is six wrongs, which definitely do not make a right.
Afghanistan and Iraq were both wrong morally because neither nation attacked us. The argument that the Taliban sponsored Osama Bin Laden is spurious. The United States gave more material aid to Osama Bin Laden than the Taliban ever did. The Taliban beat out Al Quaeda for control of Afghanistan and then made a deal to let them stay so as to keep the peace.
Afghanistan and Iraq were both politically wrong because neither country is a strategic threat to our national security. They are the kind of nations that can cause problems, but not big ones for us. They dod not have nuclear weapons nor any way to strategically attack our country. So, going to war in both countries was a diversion from real national interest. This is due in part because we overestimated the threat of Al Quaeda to us in reaction to 9/11 and forgot about who really could harm us.
Militarily it was a mistake because we did not win either war and did not achieve any strategic goals for our national security or out long term interests. What we did incurr was huge debt, a destabilized Middle East, the empowerment of Iran and thousands of soldiers who wil. Suffer cosniderable physical and psychological trauma for an undetermined amount of time into the future.
In Iraq there only three major groups to deal with and we have paid them all off so that we can have the appearances necessary to leave the country as though we accomplished something there. In Afghanistan there are innumerable tribes, war lords most of whom have more money that we have from the opium trade. Exactly what would be the advantage for any of them to arrange a deal with us? In Iraq the incentive was provided by the fact that our presence was overwhelming. So the quid pro quid was that while we cannot defeat you, you cannot fight each other for control of the country while we are here. So, it is in the interest of the Shiites, the Sunnis and the Kurds to allow us the face-saving ability to leave so that they can get on with the inevitable internal conflict that comes when the international community insists that three countries become one. In Afghanistan thre is nothing to fight over like oil and except for some skirmishes over boundaries on the edges of each war lord’s territory, no need to get us out there for them to continue their way of being. We are not a major factor in their life, so making a deal to get us to leave is just not worth it.
So, as we never admitted to the moral mistake, we cannot think clearly or talk transparantly about the others and, therefore, get trapped into making mistkes that make the quagmire deeper, like deciding to expand our troop presence in Afghanistan.
As we are not likely to admit the moral mistake and we will continue to debate the political mistake and the military mistakes among all the “I know it all” experets in the think tanks and the Congress, we need a face saving way to get out of the country and that, is why, I would assume that the current administration is floating the idea that we might talk with the Taliban. The Taliban, it turns out are the only ones who need something from us and, therefore, might be able to give us the face saving measures we need to leave the country.
The Taliban are not insurgents although they can fight like insurgents. The Taliban’s goal is to govern and they have a program for doing, however, misguided it is. And they have base in Afghanistan, expciall in the south, where, if the US?NATO forces were not there, they would easily take control of without any siginificant opposition from the central governement which is holed up in the capital and the Northern Alliance which defeated them with US strategic help is now disarticulated for fighting purposes as they have made their peace with the central government in return for the central government not bothering them and their exercise of power in their respective kingdoms.
You can see the face saving already going on in the quotes in the NY Times from Daniel Markey, former expert (sic) on South Asia in the Bush administration “If by talking, you can divide your enemies, talk. But if by talking, you’re just giving your enemies breathing space, then don’t talk.” Come on, we need to talk to the Taliban so we have a breathing space.” If the talks had taken place with any real seriousness before the war started, we may have never gone into Afghanistan, but like with Iraq, the Bush administration had not time for talking, so they set an insulting deadline and when the Taliban didn’t meet it, launched the Northern Alliance attack, compelte with US special forces and air support. The Taliban did what the Iraqis did – retreated to the hills, first of Afghanistan and then Pakstan so as to survive and fight another day. Time is not a problem for the Taliban as it is for Bush and many Americans. They have been fighting for decades, sometimes winning and tometimes losing, but always surviving.
It is billed as an attempt to split the Taliban and therfore decrease the violence or even that someone will deliver up Osama Bin Laden which, I don’t think, would be against the Taliban conscience if the price is right.
So, let us hope that we still have enough left to give the Taliban that they will help leave with dignity.
That will solve one problem but the not the larger one – the lack of repentance. The last time we made the moral mistake, complicated by the poitical and military was Vietnam and what the lack of clearly admitting our mistakes cost us was that we did it again in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Getting out of Afghanistan is good for the nation, but it does not get us out of the quagmire. That would involve a neogiation with ourselves to see if we really want to come clean and get smart.
Some would argue that in war and politics there is no morality, only winners and losers. But, at least officially, on paper and enjoying international or global accpeptance, there are some moral standards that we agree on that prevents humanity from slipping totally into the deep abyss of human immorality: treaties, conventions, protocols, statements, understandings – a network of morally based agreements that build a quilt work of commitments that normally operate in the protection not only of speciific populations who, in war and politics, are unprotected, but also of all of us so that wars do not just become one huge crime against humanities instead of conflicts in which there are crimes against humanity committed.
The Old Testament teaches that if the nation acts unjustly in its dealings with the neighbors, the nation will suffer negative consequences and that to renew their ability to take actions which are just and, thus, favor the nation, repentance is needed. Otherwise, the quagmire deepens and hope for actually escaping the ultimate consequences are lessened. Even if you are not a person who gives much credibility to Scriptures, you have to admit that history could be interpreted to teach us the same lesson.
The quagmire that awaits President Obama in Afghanistan is extreme because he is entering a conflict which was wrong from the beginning. It was morally wrong, it was politically wrong and it was militarily wrong. And, then we did it again in Iraq…I belive that is six wrongs, which definitely do not make a right.
Afghanistan and Iraq were both wrong morally because neither nation attacked us. The argument that the Taliban sponsored Osama Bin Laden is spurious. The United States gave more material aid to Osama Bin Laden than the Taliban ever did. The Taliban beat out Al Quaeda for control of Afghanistan and then made a deal to let them stay so as to keep the peace.
Afghanistan and Iraq were both politically wrong because neither country is a strategic threat to our national security. They are the kind of nations that can cause problems, but not big ones for us. They dod not have nuclear weapons nor any way to strategically attack our country. So, going to war in both countries was a diversion from real national interest. This is due in part because we overestimated the threat of Al Quaeda to us in reaction to 9/11 and forgot about who really could harm us.
Militarily it was a mistake because we did not win either war and did not achieve any strategic goals for our national security or out long term interests. What we did incurr was huge debt, a destabilized Middle East, the empowerment of Iran and thousands of soldiers who wil. Suffer cosniderable physical and psychological trauma for an undetermined amount of time into the future.
In Iraq there only three major groups to deal with and we have paid them all off so that we can have the appearances necessary to leave the country as though we accomplished something there. In Afghanistan there are innumerable tribes, war lords most of whom have more money that we have from the opium trade. Exactly what would be the advantage for any of them to arrange a deal with us? In Iraq the incentive was provided by the fact that our presence was overwhelming. So the quid pro quid was that while we cannot defeat you, you cannot fight each other for control of the country while we are here. So, it is in the interest of the Shiites, the Sunnis and the Kurds to allow us the face-saving ability to leave so that they can get on with the inevitable internal conflict that comes when the international community insists that three countries become one. In Afghanistan thre is nothing to fight over like oil and except for some skirmishes over boundaries on the edges of each war lord’s territory, no need to get us out there for them to continue their way of being. We are not a major factor in their life, so making a deal to get us to leave is just not worth it.
So, as we never admitted to the moral mistake, we cannot think clearly or talk transparantly about the others and, therefore, get trapped into making mistkes that make the quagmire deeper, like deciding to expand our troop presence in Afghanistan.
As we are not likely to admit the moral mistake and we will continue to debate the political mistake and the military mistakes among all the “I know it all” experets in the think tanks and the Congress, we need a face saving way to get out of the country and that, is why, I would assume that the current administration is floating the idea that we might talk with the Taliban. The Taliban, it turns out are the only ones who need something from us and, therefore, might be able to give us the face saving measures we need to leave the country.
The Taliban are not insurgents although they can fight like insurgents. The Taliban’s goal is to govern and they have a program for doing, however, misguided it is. And they have base in Afghanistan, expciall in the south, where, if the US?NATO forces were not there, they would easily take control of without any siginificant opposition from the central governement which is holed up in the capital and the Northern Alliance which defeated them with US strategic help is now disarticulated for fighting purposes as they have made their peace with the central government in return for the central government not bothering them and their exercise of power in their respective kingdoms.
You can see the face saving already going on in the quotes in the NY Times from Daniel Markey, former expert (sic) on South Asia in the Bush administration “If by talking, you can divide your enemies, talk. But if by talking, you’re just giving your enemies breathing space, then don’t talk.” Come on, we need to talk to the Taliban so we have a breathing space.” If the talks had taken place with any real seriousness before the war started, we may have never gone into Afghanistan, but like with Iraq, the Bush administration had not time for talking, so they set an insulting deadline and when the Taliban didn’t meet it, launched the Northern Alliance attack, compelte with US special forces and air support. The Taliban did what the Iraqis did – retreated to the hills, first of Afghanistan and then Pakstan so as to survive and fight another day. Time is not a problem for the Taliban as it is for Bush and many Americans. They have been fighting for decades, sometimes winning and tometimes losing, but always surviving.
It is billed as an attempt to split the Taliban and therfore decrease the violence or even that someone will deliver up Osama Bin Laden which, I don’t think, would be against the Taliban conscience if the price is right.
So, let us hope that we still have enough left to give the Taliban that they will help leave with dignity.
That will solve one problem but the not the larger one – the lack of repentance. The last time we made the moral mistake, complicated by the poitical and military was Vietnam and what the lack of clearly admitting our mistakes cost us was that we did it again in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Getting out of Afghanistan is good for the nation, but it does not get us out of the quagmire. That would involve a neogiation with ourselves to see if we really want to come clean and get smart.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A Taxing Matter
Taxing the rich brings down the economy. This is the constant litany of the Republicans and the reason, according to them, that the Democrats always fail at managing the economy (which is another lie). Are we living in the same world, the majority of us and the Republicans? Go to any website that has data on rich nations, nations with best quality of life, etc. The US is always somewhere in the mix for the top ten or 15, but there are always at least two countries, no matter what the measure of wealth or quality of life, that are ahead of us: Switzerland and Luxembourg. Both these countries have higher tax rates that we do. And, whenever there are other countries ahead of us, they also have higher tax rates than we do.
In fact. Paying taxes has a better return in benefit than does the alternative that the Republicans suggest. What they suggest is that lower taxes gives the rich the ability to develop and invest capital in the private sector which improves the economy and creates job and prosperity. So, they would suggest you give your money to any of the strongest companies on Wall Street. Recently, let me see, how many new jobs has that created, what great economic boom that has supported, what stability that has created for the average citizen of the world, how many people have been able to retire because Citicorp, GM, AIG and Bank of America have been producing capital for reinvestment in the economy to creat more jobs, more prosperity?
Let's say that the stimulus bill only creates 3 million jobs, not 4 and that these folks who are working make an average of $40,000 a year. These folks will spend all they have for home, care, food, clothing, education, vacation amounting to a $120 billion dollar investment in the economy which when turned over, locally, will create even more jobs, more investment in the economy, not to mention that education will improve, health care will get cheaper and more peopel with access to it, and the nation will get a new growth industry - altermative energy. Meanwhile, AIG lost $60 billion in just the last three months aned Gm is in the midst of laying off thousands. Where do you want to invest?
In fact, when President Obama was arguing, for the sake of attracting the Republican vote, that most of the stimulus would go to the private sector, it frightened me. Who wants to invest in the private sector, isn't that what is killing us. You can't rely on the market. Who wants a market. I want a job. And, I want my pension fund back. The government didn't take it away, the private sector did.
Paying taxes is the best investment around!!!!
In fact. Paying taxes has a better return in benefit than does the alternative that the Republicans suggest. What they suggest is that lower taxes gives the rich the ability to develop and invest capital in the private sector which improves the economy and creates job and prosperity. So, they would suggest you give your money to any of the strongest companies on Wall Street. Recently, let me see, how many new jobs has that created, what great economic boom that has supported, what stability that has created for the average citizen of the world, how many people have been able to retire because Citicorp, GM, AIG and Bank of America have been producing capital for reinvestment in the economy to creat more jobs, more prosperity?
Let's say that the stimulus bill only creates 3 million jobs, not 4 and that these folks who are working make an average of $40,000 a year. These folks will spend all they have for home, care, food, clothing, education, vacation amounting to a $120 billion dollar investment in the economy which when turned over, locally, will create even more jobs, more investment in the economy, not to mention that education will improve, health care will get cheaper and more peopel with access to it, and the nation will get a new growth industry - altermative energy. Meanwhile, AIG lost $60 billion in just the last three months aned Gm is in the midst of laying off thousands. Where do you want to invest?
In fact, when President Obama was arguing, for the sake of attracting the Republican vote, that most of the stimulus would go to the private sector, it frightened me. Who wants to invest in the private sector, isn't that what is killing us. You can't rely on the market. Who wants a market. I want a job. And, I want my pension fund back. The government didn't take it away, the private sector did.
Paying taxes is the best investment around!!!!
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