tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882537619389851611.post6852993366482763634..comments2023-11-03T05:09:47.246-07:00Comments on Ramblings ~: Obama's WarFranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198689517878201943noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882537619389851611.post-37729401782360231352009-10-18T12:12:57.175-07:002009-10-18T12:12:57.175-07:00681 billion for war
not a nickel for health care681 billion for war<br />not a nickel for health careDistributorcaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10149154929149577121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882537619389851611.post-11194255553125109002009-10-13T06:43:05.704-07:002009-10-13T06:43:05.704-07:00This airs TONIGHT- Tuesday.
We need to see & ...This airs TONIGHT- Tuesday. <br />We need to see & understand the dynamics of what is going on in Afghanistan, the more you know, the less being there makes sense.Franhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14198689517878201943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882537619389851611.post-80136001473582693752009-10-12T00:01:38.610-07:002009-10-12T00:01:38.610-07:00It always amazes me how much of a prophet MLK was....It always amazes me how much of a prophet MLK was. His words are true, hate is too great a burden to bear. <br /><br />Much as I wish the Taliban and similar repressive religious groups did not exist, I don't want to keep looting our coffers and losing lives to defeat them (if they even could be defeated by us rather than driven out by an antagonistic indigenous population). As Richard Engle pointed out the other day, for us to use the Surge Tactic in Afghanistan, we would have make a deal with the Taliban. That ain't gonna happen, ergo any surge will fail. <br /><br />I've set the DVR for Frontline. Thanks for the reminder.D.K. Raedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01451065603615752038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882537619389851611.post-27577074423425295732009-10-11T13:22:51.199-07:002009-10-11T13:22:51.199-07:00"A nation that continues year after year to s..."A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."<br /><br />So just for a little reality check- 40 years later<br /><br />What is THE largest line item in the US budget?<br /><br />Military spending<br /><br />What are we currently fighting for?<br /><br />Single payer health care<br /><br />So while we are having this major health care debate, and lamenting how could we possibly pay for it.... all the money is going to not one- but two wars- and has even spilled over into the Pakistan border. Two wars in three countries. <br /><br />Dr. King's words ring true...Franhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14198689517878201943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882537619389851611.post-65198153807470672892009-10-11T11:22:10.055-07:002009-10-11T11:22:10.055-07:00Granted, President Obama inherited the Iraq and Af...Granted, President Obama inherited the Iraq and Afghansitan wars. He did not start them, and he was handed a whole host of major problems when the shrub left office. <br />I understand you can't fix everything all at once, and I do respect that we need to have some patience. The economy was in crisis and he had to deal with that. <br />But all along, in the primaries, he kept announcing that he would be escalating war in Afghanistan. The intention is good- to stop the ruthless Taliban from taking over the region. <br /><br />The mujahideen, trained and armed by the US, morphed in the Taliban, and now we are involved in a war fighting them!<br /><br />Can anyone else see that this full circle of warring has come back to kick ourselves in the ass?<br /><br />I still think the worthy Dr. Martin Luther King jr. nailed it when he made his "A time to break violence" speech. <br /><br />http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html<br /><br />Although it was written 42 years ago... all we have to do is substitute the names of the countries...<br />Iraq and Afghanistan for the name Vietnam, and it rings hauntingly true.....<br /><br />We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out deperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.<br /><br />They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.Franhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14198689517878201943noreply@blogger.com