(no subject)
What happened to this country? Really?
I live in a country that tortures people.
I live in a country that illegally invades other countries without justification.
I live in a country where the foundation of it's very existence is brushed aside as a nuisance.
I live in a country that not only ignores it's own laws, but completely ignores international law.
I live in a country that is beyond hypocritical - to the point that no word does it justice.
I live in a country in which the elected officials do not heed the will of the people.
This country, our country, is run by demagogues and cowards. Nothing gets done. No one lives up to their promises. We don't have a two party system, we have a one party system. The party of useless.
Our economy is turbulent right now, following the sub-prime meltdown and increasing costs of energy (oil is hitting all time highs, almost 100$ a barrel) and health care. The value of the US dollar is falling. More and more families are living pay check to pay check and things are only getting worse for them. More and more Americans live with unreasonable amounts of debt - in fact we are a society of debt, buy now, figure out how to pay later. People live beyond their means in pursuit of the American dream, which apparently now has become plasma screen TV's, large expensive cars, and other materialistic crap.
And yet what do we do as a country? We pour billions, soon to be trillions, into wars half way across the world that serve little to no purpose, other than to try and control oil. And that doesn't even seem to be working. Afghanistan had a purpose - although we quickly abandoned it and turned our attention to Iraq before the job was done. Now we are turning our attention to Iran before Iraq is done. What reason was there even for Iraq? None. Zip. Nada.
Does anyone realize that despite any successes that might arise out of Iraq - it's all for naught. There is no reason for us to be there. None. Find me a shred of evidence to imply they were a threat, or that being there somehow behooves us. Sadaam was a bad guy, but the world is full of dictators - many are our staunch allies (read: Pakistan).
Now the drums of war are being sounded again. Iran is a threat now. It doesn't matter that the UN makes it clear that countries are allowed to enrich uranium for peaceful civil energy matters. It doesn't matter than the UN watchdog agency has been there the entire time and has found nothing wrong. They must be trying to make nukes.. because we said so. It also doesn't matter that we said Iraq had WMD's and really didn't. Better to be safe than sorry right? Great foreign policy plan.
This country has fought one just, intelligent war since World War II and that was the first Gulf War. We fought that war, as a international coalition, to stop an aggressive country from invading another. We defended a nations sovereignty. Once that was achieved, we stopped.
Besides that, the rest have been proxy wars and pointless wars. This country needs to find it's center again and soon or things will be too far gone to fix. America will be around for awhile, nations and empires don't normally disappear overnight. But it's becoming clearer everyday that America has lost it's grip on the high ground, on it's moral authority in the world. We lead the world in two things now, GDP and guns.
I live in a country that tortures people.
I live in a country that illegally invades other countries without justification.
I live in a country where the foundation of it's very existence is brushed aside as a nuisance.
I live in a country that not only ignores it's own laws, but completely ignores international law.
I live in a country that is beyond hypocritical - to the point that no word does it justice.
I live in a country in which the elected officials do not heed the will of the people.
This country, our country, is run by demagogues and cowards. Nothing gets done. No one lives up to their promises. We don't have a two party system, we have a one party system. The party of useless.
Our economy is turbulent right now, following the sub-prime meltdown and increasing costs of energy (oil is hitting all time highs, almost 100$ a barrel) and health care. The value of the US dollar is falling. More and more families are living pay check to pay check and things are only getting worse for them. More and more Americans live with unreasonable amounts of debt - in fact we are a society of debt, buy now, figure out how to pay later. People live beyond their means in pursuit of the American dream, which apparently now has become plasma screen TV's, large expensive cars, and other materialistic crap.
And yet what do we do as a country? We pour billions, soon to be trillions, into wars half way across the world that serve little to no purpose, other than to try and control oil. And that doesn't even seem to be working. Afghanistan had a purpose - although we quickly abandoned it and turned our attention to Iraq before the job was done. Now we are turning our attention to Iran before Iraq is done. What reason was there even for Iraq? None. Zip. Nada.
Does anyone realize that despite any successes that might arise out of Iraq - it's all for naught. There is no reason for us to be there. None. Find me a shred of evidence to imply they were a threat, or that being there somehow behooves us. Sadaam was a bad guy, but the world is full of dictators - many are our staunch allies (read: Pakistan).
Now the drums of war are being sounded again. Iran is a threat now. It doesn't matter that the UN makes it clear that countries are allowed to enrich uranium for peaceful civil energy matters. It doesn't matter than the UN watchdog agency has been there the entire time and has found nothing wrong. They must be trying to make nukes.. because we said so. It also doesn't matter that we said Iraq had WMD's and really didn't. Better to be safe than sorry right? Great foreign policy plan.
This country has fought one just, intelligent war since World War II and that was the first Gulf War. We fought that war, as a international coalition, to stop an aggressive country from invading another. We defended a nations sovereignty. Once that was achieved, we stopped.
Besides that, the rest have been proxy wars and pointless wars. This country needs to find it's center again and soon or things will be too far gone to fix. America will be around for awhile, nations and empires don't normally disappear overnight. But it's becoming clearer everyday that America has lost it's grip on the high ground, on it's moral authority in the world. We lead the world in two things now, GDP and guns.