Yeah!!! Political Questions ( very OT - feel free to delete )

[A440A@aol.com]

Alan (I think) writes: 
<< 
  Bottom line for me: We dare not turn this country over to anyone who would 
yank the troups, decimate morale in the armed forces, signal to the world that 
we are fair game to all terrorists, throw the Iraqis to the wolves, seriously 
empower Iran, Libya, Syria, etc., put the Israelies (our ONLY steadfast 
allies over there) in mortal danger, dismantle our intelligence services, and 
drastically hamper the economic recovery (or kill it) by raising taxes.   >>

Hmm,  that sorta looks like a Republican point of view, but this coin does 
have another side. 
1.  We are not "turning over the country" to anybody. We are supposed to feel 
like the majority of voters will actually select the person to hold office, 
(even if it didnt' happen last time). 
2.  Decimation of soldier's morale is what happens when they are asked to die 
for fabricated reasons.  This is what happened in Viet Nam,(trust me on this 
one). 
3.  How does one "signal to the world that we are fair game for terrorists"? 
And if a president can actually do this, would they fly airplanes into 
buildings?  If this is possible, then who sent the "signal" on 9/11?  
4.  Throwing the Iraqis to the wolves is not so different from destroying the 
only stabilizing force in the country, setting the stage for a massive civil 
war.  Saddam was certainly a bad guy, but what is brewing in his absence is 
going to make his regime look like the 'good old days'.  
5.  The Israelites are our steadfast ally because we are enabling them to 
totally dominate another group of people.  Can anybody call their behaviour 
towards the innocent civilians humane?  It only costs us $10,000,000 a day in 
"foreign aid" to maintain their fealty.  For this we get total animosity from the 
rest of the Arab world.  Israel is basically our police station near the oil 
patch.  
6.   "dismantle our intelligence services," has a very attractive ring to it. 
There has to be a better way.  We spend at least $25 Billion a year on 
"intelligence" and don't have a clue when an attack is coming, where Osama is, or 
how to fight the radical elements now insidiously growing all over the world. 
7.   >>drastically hamper the economic recovery (or kill it) by raising 
taxes."
     Regardless of what the taxes do to the economy right now, we have 
allowed the current government to sell our grandchildren down the river.  They will 
suffer tremendously because of the crushing debt that we are leaving them.  
The promise of "tax cuts" is simple pandering to the self-interests of the 
current over-priviliged population.  A true leader would have made the convincing 
argument that we need to suffer a little more now than a whole lot later.  We 
have more military power than the next 10 nations combined and it is still not 
enough to be victorious in the "war on terror".  It never will be.  Armies are 
only good at confronting other armies, and that is not the nature of the 
enemy we face.  The only way to win peace in this world now is to work towards 
bridging the gaps between the different peoples, not destroying anything that is 
unlike ourselves. 
    The major world powers of the last 300 years (Spain, Holland, England) 
have all been brought to their knees by the same thing:  over-extension of the 
military spending , not domestic spending nor entitlements.  We are now 
repeating history.  While we go about starving our school system and government 
programs at home to fund a military that is trying to fight sandfleas with rifles, 
the rest of the world is educating their children and building their 
countries' infrastructures.  When the dust settles, they will be in a position to BUY 
this country.  
  Bismark said it a century ago, and it is still true today. "The nation that 
has the schools owns the future".  We have a "leader" that is hocking the 
country's future for political gain, today.   If the country is short-sighted 
enough to allow him to steal another election, we will deserve what we get.  
  Are we better off now than we were four years ago? Are we safer?  Are the 
prospects for the future brighter?  Is the middle class of this country more 
robust and growing? 
   If we don't stop thinking of our own immediate gratification, we will 
leave a poorer world than we inherited.  I think that would be a failure on our 
part to shoulder our responsibilities to our future generations. 
Regards,   
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html