Follow the President

The United States has just endured two of its longest and certainly fruitless wars in its history.
 Iraq is moving in the direction of civil war, and when we leave Afghanistan the previous status quo will certainly be restored; schools closed for girls, and a nation under the Taliban and billions of taxpayer dollars wasted. 
 Likewise, there are no good options for success in Syria.  Let McCain, Clinton and Brzezinski spout intervention, but other than their obvious intent to bully Obama or cater to the fundamentalist right wing fringe of the Republican party, their proclamations have no force of power.  Obama's prudent resistance to the undue pressures from this trio should be applauded, not ridiculed or condemned. His reticence is a virtue and a strength,  not a defect or weakness.  President Obama is the president, and we should follow his lead.

Just saying . . .

Another Mid-East War?

 Why should we involve ourselves in the latest Mideast fiasco, an ongoing ‘war’ between Syrian rebels and the government?  Thousands upon thousands of people are dying over there as a decision as to whether the U.S. should intervene is parsed.  Let’s take a quick look at what we know as background information for this decision.  First, in Iraq our involvement in the tricked-up and immoral decision by Bush-Cheney to attack a country on shifting pretexts (weapons of mass destruction, etc) resulted in the deaths of several hundred thousand Iraqis.  I don’t know the exact figure, but approximately 5,000 Americans lost their lives fighting that stupid, illegal and immoral war.  Then we shifted attention to Afghanistan where thousands of Afghans and thousands more of American soldiers have died or suffered permanent paralyzing injuries.   What are the present rewards for these two involvements?  Two countries that still have constant ‘warring’ among various ethnic groups with deadly bombings and suicide bombers being a daily occurrence.  Where is the evidence that a potential Syrian involvement will do anything other than fan the flames of hatred and contribute to the deaths of hundreds of thousands more souls, including our own soldiers?  The answer is short and simple; there is none.    

Oh wait.  There are some ‘interests’ in the U.S. that would like nothing more than to jump into the Syrian fray; a substantial portion of the industrial-military community.  It is claimed that we need to help these poor people 
(by contracting for and supplying them food, medicines and weapons). 
We need to send weapons to protect our vital interests (in selling more weapons).
 We need to take responsibility for rebuilding the country (so military contractors can make billions).  

But wait another second -- We don’t have enough money for health care, for providing our poverty-stricken and unemployed with food stamps so children don’t go hungry, to repair our disintegrating infrastructure;  we know the drill.  How many lives must we disrupt and destroy because our military-industrial complex has a continuing financial interest in fanning the flames of war in far-off countries while we ignore our own declining country?

Just saying . . .