Imagine for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of “keeping us safe” or “promoting democracy” or “protecting their strategic interests.” FULL ARTICLE
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14 comments ↓
Whatever happened to that most basic concept of empathy? Why do people think that it’s ok to conquer a foreign land, or to continually kill families, when it wouldn’t be ok here?
It’s the sick principle of might makes right rearing its ugly head.
Ron Paul – awesome article once again!
Here’s the mantra…
The time to leave Iraq, and Afghanistan, is now. Not next week or next month. Not next year or in 2015. Today. Not tomorrow.
Now.
There is a parallel event that happened several years back. And there was a Post several months ago – here on Populist that also illuminated what Paul was questioning.
The article on Populist ( I believe by Lendman ) was about valuing American lives and devaluing non-American lives. And that was Paul’s theme. It is true as can be. I think I once posted on here that the Majority of Fundamentalist Preachers in a Poll taken Nationwide support the Iraqi War. And many of the rest of them make excuses for what our country has done.
Several years ago My Lai was the News story from Vietnam about the massacre of 400 villagers almost all women and children. I was recently reading about that event and noticed that some of the soldiers admitted that they raped some of the women, scalped some of the dead, and one account especially where this soldier who was firing into the ditch where the villagers had been herded for the killing noticed a baby crawl out of the ditch. He retrieved the baby and thru it back in the ditch and shot it. The officer in charge of this atrocity, Lt. Calley , was the only soldier charged and he spent two days in jail, then was moved to home arrest for a couple of years. During the home detention which lasted two years, he was able to leave the house and travel around town as long as he was accompanied by MP’s.
Remember that Vietnam was started the same way as Iraq. Lies. And the phantom Gulf of Tonkin incident.
This is why I rail against the GOP. Because the members of that Party refused to require the head of the party to be accountable for his sins.
One thing I forgot to mention about Calley. Once free he made a fortune giving Patriotic speches to the GOP faithful and Neo-Con functions. Or is GOP and Neo-Con repeating myself?
Correction. I notice that I said Calley was the only one charged. I meant to say the only one convicted. I think 22 were charged.
I get the impression that as long as things like this don’t happen to Americans, they’ll never stand up. They’ll never care about or even understand the injustice and the horrors of war and occupation.
We’ve gotten pretty darn comfy and complacent over the years. Maybe this economic crash is a wakeup call?
i appreciate Rep.Paul’s Article. And we here must get too complacent with our national security. But seeing our government of and by the people refuse to do anything for the people…except screw us…instead of passing legislation like having E-Verify for all jobs and especially for state & govt. employment & service contracts…bring home the troops from korea,germany and etc…and place them in charge of border and port security…then maybe what incursians the mexican army has had in the recent past…and all the guns going into mexico after leaving what drugs they are going to sell all of the addicts out there , maybe what kidnapping attempts and shootings in Arizona,and Texas would slow down or stop even…After all there is nothing really stopping anyone from comming accross our borders but air is there ? hmmm ..Have a great week everyone…I’m off to a gun show….second ammendent is in danger too ya know…
Some years ago when this madness started, I wrote a similar article,
A Fatal Flaw in our Alleged Foreign Policy
http://www.populistamerica.com/a_fatal_flaw
It was published a couple of times, but few listened. I hope that more listen to Mr. Paul, but I doubt it. Empathy is a dead art in the US, I fear. We simply cannot put ourselves in another’s place anymore unless it is on a “Reality” show.
Steve
Your future sight and rational thinking in “The Fatal flaw” were absolutely on target. But the outside invaders didn’t come to put a stop to our empire building because we were able to throw off the yoke of despotism that the Bush Administration brought. But the Bush bunch made out like the bandits they were. We let them rob the bank. Now that we are able, are we going to punish them for it?
What will the new Obama bunch endeavor to do when they realize there is no punishment for the wicked?
The cure for this madness is swift and sure punishment, but are we up to that task?
The Parties enable each other to pillage and rob our future. I believe in divide and conquer as a viable tactic in warfare and we are in a war with Corrupt Governance.
We now have a chance to put a stop to it. Are we going to make the effort? The odds are against it! But we can get rid of 1/2 of our problem by shunning the Republican Party into the dust bins of history. Then we will be better able to go after the next would be criminal warlord.
Hi Cliff, Adrienne and I have often discussed one of the key problems that lead to this sort of thing. When I was a kid in school, we lived in fear of the “board of Education” which many teachers kept handy. If you acted up or created mischief, you were marched to the front of the class and got a stipulated number of whacks, then perhaps had to sit in the corner for a period. If we survived that, we caught holy hell from our parents when we got home. You were expected to behave.
Mostly, we did, but if we got out of line, there were consequences! If you failed, you repeated the grade, or spent a long summer vacation doing makeup. Your parents didn’t sue the School Board because this poor grade would make it harder to go to Harvard, they chewed you out for not studying harder and doing your homework.
If you shoplifted a candy bar and got caught, you not only apologized to the shopkeeper, but you probably ate your dinner standing up. This wasn’t brutal cruelty, it was corporal punishment, on the spot, for corporal crime. I don’t remember any kid becoming damaged or psychically impaired. “Did you do that? Did you know it was wrong? Bend over.”
Nowadays, there are no consequences, the teachers have no power, However antisocial the act, bullying, lying, stealing, there is no punishment. The kids may get counseling, which is usually considered a joke by the miscreants, who are free to do it again and get counseled. Whee! Virtually every kid, or kid with influential parents, is to get an A, regardless of performance lest his ego be destroyed and his Harvard chances be diminished.
Now we are looking at two or three generations of this ilk, feeling that whatever they do is OK, if it feels good to them. Lying, cheating, stealing, killing? No problem. A few years ago, some highschool students near us bet a couple of kids that they wouldn’t throw a classmate (who could not swim) off a bridge into the river. They won their bet and the kids all stood and laughed and cheered as the kid screamed for help and finally disappeared. The actual perps got some time in Juvenile Hall. According to the paper, the students who stood and watched were given a “severe tongue lashing” by the judge. And of course, went on their merry way. There seemed to be no contrition by anybody involved, it was just a fun prank.
If you can do that with impunity, why stealing a few millions or billions, destroying businesses, forcing people into penury is just fine! Go overseas and pot ragheads or gooks? No problem. No human values anymore, or perhaps all too human.
Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox.
Yes Steve. Those that steal with impunity continue to steal. Those that are punished are not in position to continue. And those that want to stay out of Jail seeing the guilty punished will have a fear of the swift and sure punishment.
If anyone doesn’t believe this simple action/reaction then they don’t believe in the rule of law. And yes there are some in America who believe in living by the law of the jungle. We need to put these away for good.
Replace what is going on for responsibility for our actions, and consequences for breaking the law!
That H.L. Menken quote about the populace electing their heart’s desire, a complete moron as president has already happened. What incentive is there to excel when a heavily protected student with a “C” average can major in being a cheerleader in college and become president of the United States? Especialy when qualified, hard working, people are treated like trash, and given no opportunity whatsoever to rise.
If I, in desperation to feed my family, knock over a convenience store, I’ll get maybe fifteen or twenty years in the slamer. If Mr. Gotrocks knockes over a corporation for a half billion dollars, puts a thousand people out of work, robs their pension funds and health care, he gets rewarded with another hundred million or so bonus, from the bailout fund that the guy that hit the convenience store has been paying into until the jobs went away.
We are at the same state of rot that the Roman Empire was in, shortly before it collapsed, but our students probably would ask, “What’s a Roman Umpire?” After much thought, they would probably conclude that is was a guy who oversaw games in Italy, if they knew that Rome is in Italy.
I’m sorry, but the system has failed and I don’t see any fixes in sight. And we are still sending our kids to kill in far off places. What a waste all around.
Cliff, here’s one where I’ll totally agree with you – the system has totally failed. It’s not going to change until people decide to stop going along with the theft, the murder, the endless wars….
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