Follow on to the Pakistan entry

A few things that I forgot to mention in the latest entry here. Some day I intend to get the "hang" of this writing thing. You know, such items as making a rough outline, a list of "points" to make in an entry, and maybe even some sort of flow pattern for the entry. All that to add some sort of "logic", no, not necessarily to my "thoughts(?)" or rants, but to the overall "flow" of the entry. Trying to add any sort of "logic" to my rants is a total waste of time and energy. At a now official 60 years of age, trying to make my rants/thoughts/opinions contain logic, well, lets just say you might have an easier time of herding cats. By the way, I have heard of cats..........but that IS another story.
One of the things I should have added to the latest entry is in regards to how America has been trying, at least since the end of World War Two, to get the entire world to conform to the "wishes" of Washington D.C.
Now, to me at least, this is quite interesting in a perverse sort of way. Look at it this way, who the bloody damn hell are we Americans to tell the world how to live? Are "we" so pure of motive? Is our own history so squeaky clean? Are we the shining example of the "best" there is?
Let's examine these points. Bear with me, this could be long.
Who are "we" to go around telling others how to live? Well, that is one very good question. Anybody have an easy answer? Hey, even a hard answer will do. Well, "we", supposedly have a democratic republic. There aren't very many of those in the world. Does that give "us" some special "duty" to compel others to do as "we" wish them to do? Maybe, once upon a time, it MIGHT have been. If that time ever did exist. "We" no longer have much left of that democratic republic folks. No, this is NOT going to be a "blame Bush/Cheney" rant. This current administration is just the latest in a long line of crooks who have slowly eroded our liberties and freedoms over the years. One comment on this, remember the "Patriot Act"? Of course you do, it IS the law now. Ever wonder how this massive "bill" was produced so quickly? Easy, it had been written by the Clinton administration. The Bush gang just pulled it off the shelf and dusted it off.
Now, you might wonder, if Clinton had this travesty produced during his term(s) in office, why didn't he push it through Congress? They needed the "right set of circumstances" is why. What was "needed" was a "new Pearl Harbor" to ram this piece of shit through the legislative process. The attacks of 9/11 provided such justification for this to be fostered on the unsuspecting American public. Now, I do NOT claim that 9/11 was an inside job. I do not subscribe to any of the so-called conspiracy theories regards 9/11. To me, there are many unanswered questions about that attack. Until more information is available, I try to keep an open mind. It MAY have been an inside job, or it may not have been. Either way, it shook America and Americans wide awake, for a few months at least. Unfortunately, Bush told everybody to go shopping, so off most of us went. Do you see something odd here? I sure as hell do, but then, who the hell am I?
Our "motives" is up next. Well, to keep it simple, I will stay with our Iraq motives. Simple? More like simple minded.
There really isn't very much that is simple here. First, it was "pay back" for 9/11. But Iraq wasn't involved in the terror attacks. Oh, the neo-cons tried like the devil to force a connection. Meetings between Iraqi "security" officials and al-Qaeda representatives in Prague and other failed attempts. Then it was WMD! Yes sir, old Saddam had chemical and biological weapons! He was trying to make a nuke! We cannot wait for the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud!!! Oh, wait, the UN inspectors said he didn't have any. They had found NO evidence of any, in all of Iraq. Sure, Iraq did have them, once upon a time. Like during the war with Iran in the 1980's. Back in the days when Saddam was a "good buddy" to Ron Ray-gun. Why old Ron even sent his representative Donny Rumsfeld to meet with our buddy Saddam. Yes, that "famous" or is it infamous photo.
Well sir, after we invaded Iraq, we looked and looked, but never did find any of those WMD's. And for all those non-existent weapons of mass destruction, a covert CIA operative who was involved in keeping nuclear weapons OUT of the hands of some very nasty people, got "outed" and lost her cover and job. So, for not one goddamn thing of substance, America lost an experienced intelligence agent. Not a very good bargain in my opinion.
Then our motive became the spreading of democracy in the Middle East. Yes sir, don't you remember how democracy came to America? Why those sneaky Brits forced it upon us! They even fought a war with us to make damn sure America became a democracy! We still call it the "American Revolution", because the idea of democracy is so revolting to the political "leaders" of America even now more than 200 years later.
No, that won't wash as a motive any longer. Unspoken motive? Well, supposedly making that region of the world safer for the Zionist entity. Er, um, yep, Israel. Well, holy crap folks. Israel has the most modern, highly trained military force in the region. What more do they need? The Israelis even have nuclear weapons. Of course nobody is supposed to know that as they have never declared they have them. It is sort of an "open secret". No one is supposed to know about the Israeli nukes, but everybody knows they exist. Funny how things work in this crazy world.
I have NO idea what our motive in Iraq is today. I did not mention oil for a reason. The reason is, oil is NOT talked about in context with Iraq, except when the news is released that production has finally met the pre-invasion levels. Or when a pipeline is blown up, again. Personally, I do not think we went to Iraq to get the oil for America. It sure was NOT to keep us in cheap oil. Now, it could be we went to Iraq to control the flow of oil in the region. Also to have permanent bases, as the Saudi government (ruling family) wants us out of their country. All this leaves us with permanent bases in Iraq plus, the largest embassy in the entire world, right there in Iraq.
Our history. Here "we" get into some difficulty when "we" proclaim how righteous "we" are. First off, there is the genocide of the native peoples of what is now the United States. This of course is still ongoing. The poor (literally and figuratively) peoples who live on the Indian reservations are some of the worst off people in the entire world. A national shame is barely scratching the surface of that tragic mess. OK, keeping it short(?, we'll let the natives be for now. How about the Africans? "We" imported them here. We went out looking to "buy" them and then bring them here and put them to work. Slavery, it was called. Yes, it is in the Bible, so is sodomy and many other things we frown upon. Just because something is in a particular religious book does NOT make it right. Oh, but old charlie IS a heathen of course. Yes, I am, and damn proud of it.
"We" treated those poor Africans like shit. Not all of us. Even many slave owners were somewhat kindly toward their slaves. They had to be. Slaves were an investment. Like a new piece of machinery. You don't pay good money for a new tractor or slave, then go out and just totally abuse it/him/her. That makes no sense at all. No, I am not trying to justify slavery, I personally think it is a crime against humanity. I do not have slaves, obviously, as nobody in America really "owns" another person. Many of us are/were wage slaves, but this is getting off track. My grandparents didn't have slaves either. They came to America in the early 1900's as teenagers/young adults. I do not believe they would have owned or even wanted slaves anyway. Even if they had been slave owners, that would not make me guilty. I refuse to be punished for any "sins" of my ancestors. Now, for my own "sins"/crimes? Sure, they would be mine and I would take responsibility for them. Well, we sure didn't "do right" by our imported Africans.
Well, this short and very incomplete "history" review doesn't help with "our" wanting to "lead the world" by example now does it? Our "track record" doesn't look so good.
Now I am NOT anti-American. Hell, I served (honorably) in the Marines. I did my tour in Vietnam. I love America, I just think our government is out of control, and in no way able to demand that the world do as we tell them to do.
How about today? What is our example to the world of "good behavior" to be followed? Well, I already mentioned the "Patriot Act". To this we can add the abuses at Abu Ghraib, Bagram air base, and of course the one in the news the most, Guantanamo. The old "we don't torture" crap is very stale and there are very few "believers" for that line of bullshit today. We can't forget the "Military Commissions Act", which makes hash of the Constitution and civil liberty here in America. The "Homegrown Terrorist" bill that I ranted on a few entries ago is in there also. The abuses here at home alone are too numerous to mention. Hell, it is hard to remember them all! So much bullshit, and all in just about seven years. Seven years? Time flies when you're having fun. Maybe that is why it just seems like Bush/Cheney have been in power our entire adult lives.
Pardon me, but I fail to see how having the Constitution shredded, our civil liberties trampled upon,our mail and email read without a warrant, our phone calls tapped, our banking records monitored, even the books we check out of the library monitored can be anything remotely like fun. And believe me, I have an odd sense of fun. I was a Marine, remember.
All in all, I fail to see how "we" are any sort of example for the world to emulate. If anything, America today serves as a bad, indeed a very bad, example. More like a "what NOT to do sort of example. And somehow "we" feel it is our duty(!) to lead the world, to show the people the way forward!??? Good grief! Even old Charlie Brown would NOT try to kick that football.
America, it is way past time for action. WE, the people of America, need to restore our democratic republic while there is anything left of it to restore.
semper fi