Day: March 21, 2011

Only Good War Is My War!

Ready….Set….Bomb!

While the people were screaming their heads off and eating nachos and guzzling beer……routing for their fav B/Ball team…the world went to WAR!  Yet again!

Yes, Irene the US has once again attacked an Arab country…this time with the help of the UN….and this time to protect civilians from the conflict raging around them between Qadafi and rebels…….to prevent innocent civilians from being caught up in the fledgling civil war……..

And of course, the GOP and its members in Congress who have been harping for a couple of weeks for the President to get more involved and stop dragging his feet….have this to say about the newest military action…..

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Sunday pressured President Obama to better explain the U.S.’s objectives in Libya before proceeding with further military actions.

Boehner did not specifically call for a declaration of war, or a speech before a joint session of Congress, but he did call on the president to articulate the goals of the mission.

Boehner and other Congressional leaders were briefed on Friday by Obama before the president announced that he had authorized the military to participate in allied actions in Libya.

My best reaction to this statement is….HA….HA….HA…..like I said to the GOP the only good war is their war…….and then we have the rattling buffoons like McCain and Graham who are acting like tired old men that do not want to bitch about the presidential action while bitching about the presidential action….typical BS from typical BS masters!

Please do not take my post as anything but what it is intended to be…….I am personally anti-war….I fought in one of the US great war….and I believe that we should keep our noses out of others conflicts….but I will agree with the Speakers intention…..tell the American people just what it is that the US will be doing and how long will we be doing it……..

I do not think that the GOP needs to have this righteous indignation about this war……theirs have cost Americans much more than this one will (at least that is my hope)………..

We Americans are getting pretty fed up with all this political one-up-manship played by both sides of the aisle….war time is NOT the proper time to play games….tell the American people what to expect….and tell the truth this time….try not to fall into the tag line of “tell us what we want to hear”….TELL US THE TRUTH!

One last question……what about the other humanitarian problems in say Bahrain or Yemen….why are these just NOT that important?  I mean places like Yemen are killing protesters daily….but yet the priority was Libya…..why?  Or could it be a misdirection on the happenings elsewhere in the Middle East?  Or could it be that “friends” do not commit humanitarian atrocities?

Just wondering!

Republicanism

College of Political knowledge

Subject: Political Theory/ American History

First of all…that is republicanism (with a small “r”) not to be confused with Republicanism or in the US conservative thinking….is it truly all that?  Is it the best way to govern?  Is it the best for the US?  Did the Founders actually give the system of governance much thought?   Or was it the easiest way to preserve their landholdings and in doing so, guaranteed their personal independence and autonomy?

I have to look at the term through an American filter and in doing so may not totally agree with the observations of Kant or Rousseau…….

A generic definition is that it is ” form of government that is not a monarchy”….anything but……in the beginning republicanism was founded on the premise that political right and personal virtue flowed from the ownership of land…….that an unencumbered title was the primary basis of all social order and individual freedom, but if that title was ever lost then one’s personal identity and and political liberties would also be lost……

Although conceptually separate from democracy, republicanism included the key principles of rule by the consent of the governed and sovereignty of the people. In effect republicanism meant that the kings and aristocracies were not the real rulers, but rather the people as a whole were.   Exactly how the people were to rule was an issue of democracy – republicanism itself did not specify how. In the United States, the solution was the creation of political parties that were popularly based on the votes of the people, and which controlled the government. Many exponents of republicanism, such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson were strong promoters of representative democracy.  However, other supporters of republicanism, such as John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, were more distrustful of majority rule and sought a government with more power for elites.

No matter how one slices the history of the Revolution, it’s outcome was that the government would necessarily extend influence over the lives of the people by what we could call “the public authority”…………so from the very beginning American republicanism was that the landed gentry would control all governing machinery…….and NO matter how one tries to deny it…..The US has always been governed by the landed gentry, if you will…….NOTHING has changed in 235 years……and there seems little hope of much change in the next 235 years…….without some sort of intervention(?)…….