According to costofwar.com, "Taxpayers in the city of Houston, Texas will pay $754.1 million for Proposed Afghanistan war spending for FY2011. For the same amount of money, the following could be provided:
407,386 Children Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for One YearOR
13,154 Elementary School Teachers for One YearOR
13,108 Firefighters for One YearOR
102,975 Head Start Slots for Children for One YearOR
139,025 Households with Renewable Electricity - Solar Photovoltaic for One YearOR
370,734 Households with Renewable Electricity-Wind Power for One YearOR
101,656 Military Veterans Receiving VA Medical Care for One YearOR
199,437 People Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for One YearOR
12,565 Police or Sheriff's Patrol Officers for One YearOR
84,442 Scholarships for University Students for One YearOR
135,869 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5550"
Just say no to the unjust, wasteful war being waged in Afghanistan. Click on the link to see the trade off for your community.
Here is an excellent illustration of how much money one trillion dollars is (i.e., $1,000,000,000,000 or 1 million million dollars). It is hard to get your head around, but this graphic helps. That is a person in the bottom left hand corner of the stack of money. (Source: www.pagetutor.com)
The War Prayer by Mark Twain (read the complete short story here)
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them – in spirit – we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with hurricanes of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."
It was back in 1941. I was a member of a good platoon. We were on maneuvers in Lou'siana one night By the light of the moon. The Captain told us to ford a river. That's how it all begun. We were knee deep in the Big Muddy, And the big fool said to push on.
The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure This is the best way back to the base?" "Sergeant, go on, I've forded this river About a mile above this place. It'll be a little soggy, but just keep sloggin'. We'll soon be on dry ground." We were waist deep in the Big Muddy, And the big fool said to push on.
The Sergeant said, "Sir, with all this equipment, No man will be able to swim." "Sergeant, don't be a Nervous Nelly," The Captain said to him. "All we need is a little determination. Men, follow me. I'll lead on." We were neck deep in the Big Muddy, And the big fool said to push on.
All at once the moon clouded over. We heard a gurglin' cry. A few seconds later the Captain's helmet Was all that floated by. The Sergeant said, "Turn around, men. I'm in charge from now on." And we just made it out of the Big Muddy With the Captain dead and gone.
We stripped and dived and found his body Stuck in the old quicksand. I guess he didn't know that the water was deeper Then the place he'd once before been. Another stream had joined the Big Muddy About a half mile from where we'd gone. We were lucky to escape from the Big Muddy When the big fool said to push on.
Now I'm not going to point any moral — I'll leave that for yourself. Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking, You'd like to keep your health. But every time I read the papers, that old feeling comes on, We're waist deep in the Big Muddy And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy, The big fool says to push on. Waist deep in the Big Muddy, The big fool says to push on. Waist deep, neck deep, Soon even a tall man will be over his head. We're waist deep in the Big Muddy, And the big fool says to push on.
That we hereby express our utter abhorrence of war as an instrument of International policy and our profound conviction and belief that all International differences could and of a right ought to be composed by peaceful diplomatic exchanges, and, when these fail, by arbitration...
That while there may be many contributing causes for war, we believe that the deepest and most basic cause for war is a materialistic education and a materialistic philosophy of life, which exalts man and debases and depersonalizes God as the creator and the preserver of all life and as the Saviour of man...
Because war is contrary to the mind and spirit of Christ, we believe that no war should be identified with the will of Christ. Our churches should not be made agents of war propaganda or recruiting stations. War thrives on and is perpetuated by hysteria, falsehood, and hate and the church has a solemn responsibility to make sure there is no black out of love in time of war. When men and nations are going mad with hate it is the duty of Christ's ministers and His churches to declare by spirit, word, and conduct the love of God in all men. In time of war it is our Christian responsibility to prepare for peace. We would, therefore, urge our churches to think and work toward a Christian social order in which a just and lasting peace can be realized. Resolution Concerning War and Peace, Southern Baptist Convention, June 1940
The Republicans have criticized Obama's decision to scrap the planned missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying he has betrayed our "allies" and left them to be gobbled up by the Russian bear. Poland and the Czech Republic are both member states of the European Union. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the EU is $18.1 trillion (2008) versus $1.7 trillion GDP for Russia. The United States GDP by comparison is $14.3 trillion.
"Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities...
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?"
Considering that each U.S. citizen's share of the national debt is $38,512 (as of today), let Europe pay for their own missile defense.
"I note that Jacobson has more combat time than the aggregate for Bush II, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Obama, Biden, Gonzalez, Clinton, Perle, Abrams, Kristol, Feith, Podhoretz, Krauthammer, George Will, Dershowitz, and Gates. These men, if the word is appropriate, killed that kid. Jacobson just caught them in the act."
Fred Reed, referring to Associated Press writer Julie Jacobson. Jacobson captured the image of a Marine dying in combat in Afghanistan. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates criticized AP's decision to publish of the photo.
The following quote perfectly illustrates the problem democracy faces in Afghanistan: ""We don't know what exactly he stands for," said Rohullah Stanakzai, an unemployed villager. "But our elders pushed us to vote for Karzai, because he is a Pashtun like us. A non-Pashtun should never become president. We'd consider him illegitimate.""
Obama's goal to establish a democratic government in Afghanistan is folly. Democracy will not work in any country where the people self-identify on a tribal basis (i.e., Afghans, Iraqis, etc). Mr. Stanakzai (quoted above) will obey the edicts of his tribal leaders, just as tribesmen have time done from time immemorial. This is not democracy, it is an oligarchy with a democratic veneer.
On June 16, the House approved the $106 billion war supplemental to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September. The vote was 226-202 with all but 5 Republicans voting nay.
This is an example of politics at its worst. Since 2003, the Republicans have accused Democrats who voted against war funding as failing to "support the troops." Now the Republicans have opposed the war supplemental (using as an excuse inclusion of an additional $5 billion for the International Money Fund [IMF]). Add-ons to the war supplement in the past have included extension of unemployment benefits, tsunami disaster relief, low income home energy assistance, Hurricane Katrina relief and drought relief for farmers (among many others). The GOP always voted yea in the past when these add-ons were included, but that was when it was Bush's war. It is apparent that our troops are nothing but pawns in a power struggle between the two parties.
If only the GOP vote against war funding were a vote against the war(s). There is one Republican with integrity; see his statement here.
President Obama created a stir a few weeks ago when he said the following during a speech in Turkey, "...although as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."
Faith has undoubtedly played a large role in the life of our nation. Many of the Founding Fathers were Christians. Others were deists, notably Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin (and Geo. Washington?), or indifferent "Christians" who were inspired by the Enlightenment. But I believe that the relevant question is not whether the United States was founded on Christian principles, but whether, "Are we today a Christian nation?"
"More than one-fifth (22%) strongly agreed that Jesus Christ sinned when He lived on earth, with an additional 17% agreeing somewhat";
"A slight majority of Christians (55%) strongly agree that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches, with another 18% agreeing somewhat";
"...three-quarters (78%) said he (God) is the “all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe who rules the world today";
Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective";
"Much like their perceptions of Satan, most Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force, either. Overall, 38% strongly agreed and 20% agreed somewhat that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.”
And these are the beliefs of people who profess to be Christians.
Based on the above, I believe that America is most accurately described as a 'post-Christian' nation. The religion of the majority of Americans is consumerism (def. "the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions") and the god that they worship is their "stuff".
Ron Paul's 2010 Republican primary challenger has a website named Do You Know Ron Paul? As if Ron Paul has a hidden agenda. I assume that Paul's opponent takes the opposing view to each of the items in the list of "what Ron Paul really stands for." Here is a sample of what Dr. Paul "really stands for":
"Wants to get rid of the Federal Reserve and return to the Gold Standard."
"Wants to get rid of the Department of Education." So did Ronald Reagan; this was actually in the GOP platform as late as 1996. (BTW - the Dept. of Ed. is only one of several US Gov't Departments that Ron Paul wants to get rid of)
"Wants to get rid of the IRS." I wager that opposition to this will garner Mr. Cherry lots of support.
"Wants to bring home all troops from Iraq immediately and shut down U.S military bases worldwide."What? Ron Paul is against the Iraq War?
"Wants to cut off all foreign aid to all countries."
"Wants to pull us out of the World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary Fund." Apparently Mr. Cherry is a proponent of the New World Order
And Mr. Cherry apparently thinks that constituents of Texas's 14th Congressional District are a bunch of morons. After all, Dr. Paul has made no secret of what he stands for. His views are well known and documented (especially following the '08 presidential campaign) and District 14 has elected Paul to his House seat seven times (including 2008 when Paul won 70% of the vote in a primary challenge).
Will the voters of District 14 again "say yes to the Constitution and freedom" or settle for an establishment tool wannabe?
I've lately heard several of the GOP mouthpieces on the radio (both national and local) dismiss the recent torture controversy; saying that none of the government's "enhanced interrogation techniques" were indeed torture. Limbaugh slapped himself to simulate "torture" and Hannity has offered to be waterboarded for charity (I wager he wouldn't last 30 seconds). As opposed to defenders of torture (who are at least intellectually honest), El Rushbo and Co. argue that no detainees have even been tortured.
Well, there have been 38 suspected or confirmed homicides of detainees in US custody; and that is according to the US military. I assume that most reasonable people would define abuse that results in death as torture.
According to Jason Leopold's April 30 article at The Public Record: "Dilawar was chained by his wrists to the ceiling of his cell for four days and brutally beaten by Army interrogators on his legs for hours on end to the point where he could no longer bend them. He died on Dec. 10, 2002.
Lt. Col. Elizabeth Rouse, an Air Force medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Dilawar, said Dilawar’s leg was pummeled so badly that the” tissue was falling apart and had basically been pulpified."
“Had Dilawar lived,” Rouse told Army investigators in sworn testimony, "I believe the injury to the legs are so extensive that it would have required amputation. I've seen similar injuries in an individual run over by a bus.""
Sounds like torture to me.
Some folks will argue, "Do whatever will keep us safe." But the instance noted above was hardly a 'Jack Bauer-type' life or death situation. In fact, "The U.S. Military never produced any evidence to prove that either Habibullah or Dilawar had connections to the Taliban or al-Qaeda.
In fact, as the New York Times reported, when Dilawar had died, “most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.”
It didn't take long listening to talk radio today to determine that the GOP talking points of the day (regarding the torture memos released last week) were about "criminalizing policy differences" and the US becoming a "banana republic" if the Bush administration's torture policy is investigated. The radio talking heads were definitely on message. I heard four radio talk show hosts parroting the same line during my limited drive time listening.
But what if the policy itself (i.e., torture) is criminal?
Never mind that the U.S ratified the UN Convention Against Torture in 1988 under President Reagan (btw - I think that we should quit the UN and kick 'em out of New York). Never mind that our State Department prepares 'Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices' that condemn many of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" described in the memos when practiced in other countries. According to the talking heads on my radio, I must either be a leftist or an Islamist terrorist sympathizer to even ask the question.
Update:Glenn Greenwald (my favorite liberal pundit) on the America as a 'banana republic' fallacy: "People like John McCain argue that only "banana republics" prosecute former political leaders, but the reality is exactly the opposite. As the Western world has spent decades pointing out, the hallmark of an under-developed, tyrannical society is the very same premise we have embraced: that political elites are free to break the law with impunity and never suffer the consequences that ordinary citizens do."
Is the Obama administration socialist (as Republicans are so fond of parroting) or fascist? You decide.
Socialism versus fascism, according to the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, "Where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society’s economic processes through direct state operation of the means of production, fascism sought that control indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners. Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the “national interest”—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it. (Nevertheless, a few industries were operated by the state.) Where socialism abolished all market relations outright, fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities. Where socialism abolished money and prices, fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically. In doing all this, fascism denatured the marketplace."
"For five decades, Americans resisted Godless Communism. If they come to realize they did so to save Godless Capitalism, or Godless Socialism, what happens to loyalty and love of country?
To love one’s country, said Edmund Burke, one’s country ought to be lovely. If this is not God’s country anymore, whose country is it?"
The reason that I dismiss the Tea Party movement is because the same people that attended the tea parties on April 15 seemingly didn't give a damn about out-of-control government spending or civil liberties prior to January 20, 2009.
There is no doubt that Obama is rushing headlong to fascism through the door that Bush opened (see here the Bush deficit vs. the projected Obama deficit), but the mess that we find ourselves in did not happen overnight, and both factions (R and D) of the Government Party share plenty of blame.
To put the tea parties in perspective, estimates of nationwide tea party turnout are between 550,000 and 1 million people at 858 events. By comparison, Major League Baseball had ~358,000 people in attendance in 14 cities. That is hardly what I would describe as awakening "a sleeping giant."
I've recently been reading The Gulag Archipelago,Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's account of life in the Soviet prison and labor camps . Early in the book, Solzhenitsyn lists interrogation techniques employed by the NKVD (the Soviet secret police). The techniques described by Solzhenitsyn are remarkably similar to those described in the International Committee of the Red Cross's recently released report titled "ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody" (see the report here). Mark Danner of the New York Review of Books has written a couple of excellent articles on the topic (here and here) and provides a disturbing summary of the report. This quote from Danner summarizes the ICRC findings, "the CIA seems to have arrived at a method that is codified by the International Committee of the Red Cross experts into twelve basic techniques, as follows:
Suffocation by water poured over a cloth placed over the nose and mouth...
Prolonged stress standing position, naked, held with the arms extended and chained above the head...
Beatings by use of a collar held around the detainees' neck and used to forcefully bang the head and body against the wall...
Beating and kicking, including slapping, punching, kicking to the body and face...
Confinement in a box to severely restrict movement...
Prolonged nudity...this enforced nudity lasted for periods ranging from several weeks to several months...
Sleep deprivation...through use of forced stress positions (standing or sitting), cold water and use of repetitive loud noises or music...
Exposure to cold temperature...especially via cold cells and interrogation rooms, and...use of cold water poured over the body or...held around the body by means of a plastic sheet to create an immersion bath with just the head out of water.
Prolonged shackling of hands and/or feet...
Threats of ill-treatment, to the detainee and/or his family...
Forced shaving of the head and beard...
Deprivation/restricted provision of solid food from 3 days to 1 month after arrest..."
I'll bet that most Americans did not hesitate to describe the techniques detailed by Solzhenitsyn as torture when his account was published in 1973. And most Americans at the time probably thought that torture was only used by our enemies. Growing up during the Cold War, I thought that torture was a abhorrent thing only used by the Vietnamese on our POWs or by the secret police of Eastern Bloc countries to squash dissent. I never would have imagined that the same techniques would be used by my own government (I was just a naive youngster).
As a Christian, I am appalled that my government would utilize torture. But I find it even more disturbing (and perplexing) that so many of my fellow Christians are not appalled.
My edition of Webster's defines obscene as, "offensive to accepted standards of decency." The AIG corporate logo should be next to the definition (IMHO). AIG has received $170 billion of US taxpayer money (yea -that's right, billion with a "B" - $170,000,000,000). AIG lost $61 billion during the 4th quarter 2008, the largest quarterly loss in US corporate history. AIG stock was $41.18/share on March 14, 2008. The stock price closed on March 13, 2009 at $0.50 (up 9¢ on the day).
Now here's the kicker - AIG is paying out $165 million in bonuses for 2008. According to the New York Times, "The bonuses will be paid to executives at A.I.G.’s financial products division, the unit that wrote trillions of dollars’ worth of credit-default swaps that protected investors from defaults on bonds backed in many cases by subprime mortgages.The bonus plan covers 400 employees, and the bonuses range from as little as $1,000 to as much as $6.5 million. Seven executives at the financial products unit were entitled to receive more than $3 million in bonuses." Apparently bonuses at AIG are not based on performance.
Even the kleptocrats running the US government should find this offensive.
As the Italian anti-fascist Gaetano Salvemini said about fascist economies, "Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social." So Obama is not a socialist (as the Republicans are so fond of parroting), he is more of a quasi-fascist (just like his predecessor).
The preacher spoke last Sunday about hope, which got me thinking. With the economy in a downward spiral (as reflected in the balance of my brokerage accounts), people are grasping for hope. A multitude of Americans have put their hope in President Obama (as symbolized in Shepard Fairey's iconic image from the '08 campaign). But putting one's hope in man will always lead to disappointment. There is only one source of real hope.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... 1 Peter 1:3
Attorney General Eric Holder is right. America is a "nation of cowards" when it comes to discussing race. Holder urged Americans to talk frankly about race. So here goes.
Why are nearly 70% of black children born out of wedlock? The myriad of problems that plague the black community (e.g., poverty, crime, education, etc.) are rooted in the disintegration of the black family. In President Obama, black America now has an excellent model of a seemingly dedicated husband and father. Will the black community now follow his example, take responsibilty and give their children a shot at a brighter future. That would be hope and change that I can believe in.
Somehow I doubt that this is the discussion that Attorney General Holder had in mind.
