Month: March 2013

What Price Iraq?

We have just celebrated the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War…..a war started on lies, cost 4400+ troops their lives and an almost incalculably amount of wounded soldiers……..and then there is the loses on the Iraqi people……mind numbing numbers…..but with that all said just what will be the price tag for this war?

Newser) – How much do you think the war in Iraq was worth, in dollars? Was your figure more or less than $7.7 trillion? Because that’s how much the war might end up costing, according to a new study from Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. So far, the government has spent $1.7 trillion on the war, but that’s not counting $490 billion in veterans’ benefits, which could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next 40 years once interest is added in, Reuters reports.

And that’s just the cost in treasure. As for the blood cost, the study estimates that the war killed at least 134,000 Iraqi civilians, and contributed to the deaths of four times that many people. Add in security forces, journalists, and humanitarian workers, and the number is somewhere between 176,000 and 189,000. The US got precious little in return for its money, the study concluded, adding that the $212 billion reconstruction effort mostly failed, with fraud and waste accounting for most of the spending.

The saddest part is not about the war is that were lied to to go to war…….it will be the cost to returning vets…….but the biggest thing is that charities are helping these people when the government owes them more than they can ever pay……the government sent them…..the government is responsible for the care afterwards……please I am not bad mouthing the charities…just there should be NO need for them.

At what point does the country accept the damage they have done to its people and accept the burden of caring for vets…..but instead all vets are good for is a few electioneering slogans and campaign props…..I have NO respect for a country that treats its people as such……and a government that turns a blind eye to the suffering of the vets does not deserve my support……

Meanwhile the pigs that started the war are appearing everywhere trying to rewrite history and save their legacy….and people are letting them get away with it….

And Then There Is Syria

For two years now the two sides have been battling each other for control of the country……each side has accused the other of one atrocity after another……and we here in the West must believe what we choose to believe…..but now there is a real push to have the world believe that one side or the other is using chemicals weapons (WMDs)…..sound familiar?

A senior Israeli official said Wednesday that it is “apparently clear” that chemical weapons were recently used in Syria, and that the alleged attack will be a main topic of conversation with visiting President Barack Obama.

The statement by Yuval Steinitz, the newly appointed minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, conflicts with U.S. assessments that there is no evidence behind accusations traded the day before between Syrian rebels and the Bashar Assad regime of a chemical weapons attack in a village in the north of the country.

Even thought there is little evidence of such an act……we have the usual neo-cons rattling the sabres……

Two top foreign policy lawmakers, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), separately called for the White House to step up military action in Syria, with Graham arguing that Obama should consider having American troops “get on the ground” to help secure chemical weapons sites.

Later in the evening, the heads of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), joined forces on CNN to say that they believed chemical weapons had likely been used, without offering evidence. They said the White House should consider military action.

“If in fact we prove beyond a shadow of a doubt they have used these chemical weapons … I think we are morally obligated to do something about their ability to deliver these weapons,” said Rogers. “And if that was a very limited military strike to do that — again, I think we’re morally obligated to do that.”

Interesting that all this bravado comes on the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war……….what could be the outcome?

My guess would be aimed at Iran who is an ally of Assad…..if the West were to go into Syria militarily then Iran would have the justification they may need for an all out attack…….Syria would just the beginning of another war that no one wants to pay for and no one wants responsibility for once the decision is made……

As a Republican and Iraq war veteran, I support an assault weapons ban – CSMonitor.com

Before I get the inevitable dressing down by some I want to say that I would have posted this even if it were a pro position….why?  It is a vet that is writing this and their opinion has weight….more so than some person who gets a million dollar campaign donation from some special interest group…..in case that confuses you….I am referring to the NRA.

 

As a Republican and Iraq war veteran, I support an assault weapons ban – CSMonitor.com.

Final Comment On Guns

That is probably a lie….I will most likely have more to say on guns as the year moves on….but for now…….

If you watched the hearings on guns then you saw Giffords and her hubby testify and then there was Graham’s rant about magazines….and a women that went on and on about the need for large capacity magazines….and finally there was Mr. French (LaPierre)….who crapped on everything and warned the Congress of the disaster that would befall the country if ANY measures were passed…….

Newser) – The NRA plans to oppose mandatory background checks on all gun purchases, its president tells USA Today , rejecting one of the most popular proposals on gun control: the closure of loopholes allowing gun-show purchases without background checks. If the measure, which polls with 85% support, can’t get through, prospects for other new rules look bleaker, the paper suggests. Would the NRA call on legislators to oppose such a requirement? “If it came up today, yes,” said president David Keene.

Keene saw a less than 50% chance the measure would pass Congress. “But it has a better chance (than an assault-weapons ban) because it sounds reasonable,” he noted. The likelihood of that ban? “Very, very small,” he said. Still, he offered a “caveat”: “When you get in a battle with the president of the United States, if he’s willing to spend political capital, you’d be foolish to … bet against him.” But with other things on his plate, President Obama isn’t likely to push as hard for the ban as Bill Clinton did, Keene said.

My feelings are well documented so I will close with a quote from H.L. Mencken…..“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

And there sports fans is the real argument on both sides….nothing but fear…..NO truth…….my grandfather use to say….”if you think of yourself as a victim, then you already are”…….enuff said!

And then there is the right to own a gun…..it is a right but should it be made mandatory?  Does the government have the right to demand that you own a gun and maintain it?

You are probably asking yourself right about now…”what the Hell am I going on about, right?”

Residents of Nelson, Ga., could soon have more than the right to bear arms—they could be legally required to, reports WSB-TV. With just one police officer in the 1,300-person town that straddles two counties, Nelson residents face long police response times, so local officials are introducing the Family Protection Act, which mandates that every head of household “maintain a firearm, together with ammunition.” Of course, there will be plenty of room for exemptions—for convicted felons and people with religious objections—and officials say they don’t intend on enforcing the statute. “Why have an ordinance if you’re not going to enforce it? What’s the point?,” says one Nelson resident. “This is big government at its worst.”

Nelson isn’t the first town in the United States to ponder a firearms requirement, notes the Week. Among the others:

  • Kennesaw, Ga. The most famous example, Kennesaw has required every household to keep a firearm since 1982, though it’s an unenforceable law. Police estimate that about half the town complies.
  • Sabattus, Maine. A retired cop wanted a gun requirement to make a statement against gun control talk since the Sandy Hook shootings, but the town council voted down his measure 4-0 on Tuesday. The local police chief said people “have the right not to bear arms.”
  • Virgin, Utah. About 95% of the town’s residents already had a firearm when the law passed in 2000. As in other towns, the measure isn’t really enforced, though. “It’s not enforcement,” says the mayor, “it’s a statement.”

Thoughts?

Addendum:  It seems that all the panic and ranting was in vain…….the only whiners I saw were the gun nuts spreading fear and loathing………there will be NO, I repeat, NO assault weapon ban or extended magazine ban!  I believe that I told people months ago to stop the panic buying that little would change from the gun laws we have now…….looky looky!  Not much will change!

Can Democracy Be Dangerous?

I know we all hold our ‘democracy’ up as something to be strive for in the future by many countries….but can it be a dangerous move?  Or is it the only answer for the government of a country?

A couple of countries that are trying the democracy thing come to mind……Pakistan and Indonesia……..

Indonesia and Pakistan are plagued by sectarian violence despite their embrace of democratic ideals—but why? According to Pankaj Mishra, writing at Bloomberg, their democracy is actually the problem. While officials secretly wield power through extremist groups and conservative Islamists flame religious tensions, elected officials are only making things worse: “In the absence of substantive democracy,” writes Mishra, leaders “cynically deploy radical groups to practice power politics.” In Pakistan, for example, mainstream leaders allegedly pay off a Shiite-killing terrorist group because it gathers votes for elections due this year. In Indonesia, lighter political restrictions have allowed militias and terrorist organizations to be officially recognized. Governments, meanwhile, are too fragmented to face extremists or grapple with poverty. And progressive parties have been unable to overcome decades of crushing blows from the ruling elite. “One day, this dyad of dupes and extremists may well be regarded as a byproduct of a particularly unstable and grim phase in the evolution of democracy,” writes Mishra. “But that day will come only if democracy amounts to something more than … a way of further empowering the rich and the powerful.” Click for Mishra’s full column.

And that is why democracy can be a dangerous thing…..corruption and empowering the rich to do as they choose with no regard for the country and its people……but is what they have really democracy?