Day: July 13, 2011

Must We Save The World?

For decades I have been writing and lecturing about the need for the US to cease its roll as the police force for the world…….it seems that whenever a maniacal dipstick threatens someone…..the world turns to the US to protect them from whatever perceived threat there is..and like the dutiful servants of man…we up and run head long into another war of sorts…..and who pays for all this adventurism?  The American taxpayer…that is who!

The time is now to reconsider our roll as the world’s police force….it is time to tell the world that they need to handle their little squabbles among themselves….the US is struggling with amount debt and can NO longer afford the luxury of being the hero to the world, well at least half of it……

Other than my simple objection to our adventurism, is there any other reasons to stop being the world’s policeman?    Why, yes there is!  Below is a list by Michael Snyder for Black Listed News……a good list and excellent reasons to cease our law enforcement roll to the world…..

#1 Prior to the beginning of the “War on Terror” our national debt was under 6 trillion dollars.  Today, it has more than doubled and currently sits at a whopping 14.3 trillion dollars.

#2 Today, the U.S. military is in nearly 130 different nations and it has a total of about 700 military bases around the globe.  It costs approximately 100 billion dollars each year to maintain these military bases.

#3 U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined.

#4 The United States already accounts for 46.5% of all military spending on the planet.  China is next with only 6.6%.

#5 If Bill Gates gave every penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.

#6 When you throw in all “off budget” items and other categories of “defense spending” not covered in the Pentagon budget you get a grand total ofsomewhere between $1.01 and $1.35 trillion spent on national defense in 2010.

#7 The U.S. government borrows an average of about 168 million more dollarsevery single hour.

#8 The Pentagon currently gobbles up 56 percent of all discretionary spending by the federal government.

#9 Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. GDP grew by only 4.26%, but the U.S. national debt soared by 61% during that same time period.

#10 The cost for the first week of airstrikes on Libya was 600 million dollars.  Keep in mind that the leader of the opposition in Libya has admitted that his forces contain large numbers of the same “al-Qaeda fighters” that were shooting at American troops in Iraq.  So we are going broke and we are helping al-Qaeda take power in Libya at the same time.

#11 The total price tag for each F-22 fighter jet is approximately $350 million.

#12 Over the past decade, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost U.S. taxpayers well over a trillion dollars.

#13 If you went out today and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you over 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

#14 Since 2001, the total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan breaks downto well over $3,600 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

#15 Just one day of the war in Afghanistan costs more money than it took to build the entire Pentagon.

#16 The United States government is now responsible for more than a thirdof all the government debt in the entire world.

We are going broke and part of the reason, although not the only reason, are our wars and our adventurism…..maybe the more that the people know, the more they will demand that we worry about this country first and the rest of the world second……wishful thinking, I know…..but we have got to start somewhere.

Will The EU Survive Greece?

Inkwell Institute

European Desk

For about a month or so A loyal reader of Info Ink, Quin of Quintessential Havoc (blogroll will get you to his insightful site….visit often) and I have been having an exchange about the happenings in Greece and the possible effects on the rest of us mortals…..my view, at this point, is that the people of Greece are pulling for a default……and the EU is trying to help Greece save itself from itself……buy are there other forces at work here?  If you have been reading then you know that I think that this whole process is a situation brought on by world financial services and their solution does little to help the people of the country, but rather give them access to to a wide variety of profit making enterprises…..but that is just my opinion and not held by too many others…..but for this post I want to ask if the existence of the EU could be shaken by a failure of Greece……

In a piece written by Toby Helm for the UK’s Guardian…….

The talk was no longer of high ideals and “more Europe”, but of mere survival for the European project. Where they used to talk of “ever closer union” in the commission press conferences, the phrase i s now rarely, if ever, heard except when referring to history. José Manuel Barroso, the pragmatic European commission president, set his sights at this summit on “stability” for the foreseeable future, meaning the EU will do well to steady the ship in the face of Greece’s financial implosion and possible exit from the single currency. Never mind any new European dreams.

From Schwaiger’s perspective, one of the reasons why Europe has run out of idealism is the passage of time. He argues that Germany’s postwar guilt, which did so much to power the European project, no longer drives young Germans to think about the EU as their parents and grandparents did. “In Germany the new generation, just out of school, has no memory of this,” he says. Instead the young see a Germany united from its former east and west, communism fallen and a continent no longer haunted by its past or racked by the fear that it could plunge back into war. Much of Europe’s original raison d’être has disappeared and Germany is now less willing to be its unquestioning, selfless paymaster.

The immediate challenge for Brussels is to ease the Greek crisis and hope that its economy can be revived. The aim is to get private banks that are exposed to Greek debt to exchange them for new loans. Then pray the rescue measures work. In the meantime, plans are being pushed through the European parliament to toughen up the kind of rules that were supposed to apply under the stability pact. There will be new surveillance “early warning” measures aimed at ensuring eurozone countries are not heading into economic trouble, such as unsustainable property booms.

Optimists in the EU try to convince themselves that something good could come from the crisis – meaning more economic integration and harmonisation of taxes – steps towards the single EU economy of which Prodi dreamed. One of the arguments the commission deploys to calm anxiety is to make out that Europe is no stranger to crises – indeed, it says, it has always thrived on them.

I think the concern is for the EU and not what is best for Greece…..and since it is a form of centralized government I can understand the need to see the the Union survives over the state……but Greece could not be the only weak link……hiding in the economic weeds is Spain, Portugal, Ireland and slowly entering into the game is Italy…if things do not improve the EU could be just a not so fond memory…….to some it will be….Good Riddance!

The US needs to watch and learn!

P.S.  At the time of this draft….the Euro has sunk to $1.40 in value….that is one of its lowest points so far.  Is it a sign of the coming storm?