Words of wisdom from
Canada. It's time we all stopped tolerating, even supporting, regimes filled with thugs, criminals, and psychotics. And that goes double for the USofA, okay?
If, for example, we'd stood up publicly and said we were sorry we put Hussein in power and we were sorry we'd given him missiles and we were sorry we'd shipped him the materials to create biological weapons and we sorry we'd sold him the materials to make other weapons and by the way, we're going to Iraq and take him down because we created a monster...well, I think I could have supported that war. (We'd have to promise never to do it again, of course.)
Look at Pakistan and India. Exactly how did these two countries become such a danger to themselves and others? How did they get the money and technology to build nukes? Aside from nukes, exactly where did they get the armaments to wage, if they choose, all-out war on each other?
If you're really curious, look in the mirror.
They got it from us.
We "negotiated" a sort of temporary "peace" between the two of them. We give them money not to kill each other.
But there are strings attached, you see. Most of the money we give them, they're contractually required to spend buying weapons and military technology from USofA corporations.
Yep, you heard me. We enforce peace by demanding that they become more and more heavily armed all the time.
We suck, don't we?
We don't have to suck. We need to demand, from our leaders and from the media, that we be given easy access to the terms of these agreements while they're in negotiation. If they're too ashamed of what they're doing to let the world see it, then they shouldn't be doing it. (All governments should be required to do this.)
We need to demand that our local newspapers carry this material, in full, on a timely basis. We need to read it, discuss it with each other, and send feedback to Washington.
We need to demand that our government stop tying "diplomacy" to the interests of huge corporations and conglomerates including or most especially the defense industry.
And we need to dismantle about 50 percent of the military-industrial complex. Enough is enough, okay?
And you. You're at fault too, okay?
It's more than just national politics. State and local politics are also crucial. They're immediate, too. The decisions being made by a neighborhood council that you might not even know exists can directly affect your life 24 hours from now.
Your urban or suburban city council is negotiating deals and dealing with issues that you care about. You don't see much about it in the papers until after it's a fait accompli because most people pay no attention to local politics, so the papers quit covering it. That's a serious mistake, that "not caring" thing. From mayors can come governors, congressmen, and senators, okay? From them come presidential candidates.
I'm just saying. When they put a landfill in the empty field down the street from your house, don't come crying to me. You should have been paying attention.
Ahem.
