Maybe the humanitarian thing would actually work this time! And there's that influence on the new government that will just happen to be sitting on the largest oil reserves in N. Africa. Two for the price of one!
Of course, the assumption here is that the rebellion was inspired by the same spontaneous, Facebook/Twitter, fairly young and democratically minded demographic as the rebellions next door. I hope that's the case.
I have no problem with the intervention. I may have a problem with what it becomes. My biggest problem with it is that the United States has no business spending the money, any money, on it.
People generally don't know what killed the Soviet bear. It wasn't Ronald Reagan. It was their military and foreign policy budget. It sucked the empire dry. Ronnie just hit the fast forward button by forcing them to spend even more by increasing our defense budget.
Right now the whole dialogue on the American economy is being driven by crazy people who believe the only thing our taxes should be paying for is defense.
The rest of us can go back to the 18th century. If it was good enough for the Founding Fathers, it's good enough for us.
Oh. By 'us' I mean the middle class, working class and the poor.
At the heart of all of this is a little something called American Exceptionalism.
The term, if you listen to it used on Fox News, is really synonymous with chauvinism: zealous and aggressive patriotism. This idea needs to be countered passionately. Yet, the current atmosphere reminds me of Yeats', "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity."
The U.S. is headed toward some pretty serious social unrest. You don't hear about it on the news, but labor rallies are sprouting all over the country. The next year or so is going to be pretty interesting.
But the bottom line is that the U.S. has to let go of the military super power thing and let the rest of the world step up.
Reagan sped up the arms race and forced the Soviets into early retirement. By cutting taxes and not planning for two wars in the federal budget, George Bush had us doing the same thing to ourselves.
Obama just grabbed the baton from him and kept running. When the Tea Party right (who most of the country disagree with but that doesn't seem to matter) spooks people who should know better into cutting spending even more (on programs that don't put a dent in the federal deficit but who cares?), does Obama step up or go belly up?
That's a rhetorical question.
I sincerely hope the Libyan people can get the kook off their backs and keep out any kooks waiting in the wings.
But here in the U.S.... we need to learn how to do some pretty simple math before it's too late, and that doesn't include firing teachers (Talk about the politics of distraction!). The cost of one cruise missile could pay a teacher's salary for about fifteen years. The U.S. has launched over one hundred in the Libya campaign so far.
That's my Sunday morning commentary for this week.
I sincerely hope the Libyan people can get the kook off their backs and keep out any kooks waiting in the wings.
But here in the U.S.... we need to learn how to do some pretty simple math before it's too late, and that doesn't include firing teachers (Talk about the politics of distraction!). The cost of one cruise missile could pay a teacher's salary for about fifteen years. The U.S. has launched over one hundred in the Libya campaign so far.
That's my Sunday morning commentary for this week.
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