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The American Public: A Tough Soldier Or A Chicken Hawk Cowering In A Cubicle?
Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
You gotta love the American public sometimes. For a mass of people so easily terrified by guys in caves funded and armed by our intelligence services and “allies” in the Persian Gulf, the same public talks with such armchair bravado when it comes to launching bombs from drones and sending other people’s children to die.
Makes you wonder though, which one is it? Is the American public actually the tough guy soldier it pretends to be when cheering overseas military interventions, or is it really a scared, propagandized, coward hiding in one of our nation’s endless cubicle rows? Unfortunately, based on recent opinion polls demonstrating approval for military action against ISIS, it appears to be the latter. The former is merely a front put on by that terrified, economically insecure, silently suffering automaton. I really wish this weren’t the case.
“ISIS as the new enemy” is a meme that has made me very uncomfortable from the start for several reasons, not the least being the fact that this group seemingly emerged out of nowhere just when it seemed corrupt politicians from both parties in Washington D.C. were becoming increasingly frustrated by their inability to launch missiles into Syria back in 2012, following well documented disastrous campaigns in Iraq and Libya. Not only that, it is quite clear that many of our so called “allies” such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait have been the major funders behind ISIS. Moreover, for a public so squeamish and outraged by beheadings, we hear barely a peep about the fact that beheadings hit a record level in Saudi Arabia during August, with nearly one unfortunate soul decapitated per day during the month. Nope, haven’t heard much about that at all.
But of all the inconsistency and irrationality that comes with increased support by the American public for military action against “ISIS,” nothing is more concerning than the fact that this recent approval appears to be based entirely on propagandized falsehoods. As usual, you can thank politicians and mainstream media for the latest assault on the public’s logic.
Trevor Timm encapsulates this perfectly in today’s Guardian op-ed. He writes:
Did you know that the US government’s counterterrorism chief Matthew Olson said last week that there’s no “there’s no credible information” that the Islamic State (Isis) is planning an attack on America and that there’s “no indication at this point of a cell of foreign fighters operating in the United States”? Or that, as the Associated Press reported, “The FBI and Homeland Security Department say there are no specific or credible terror threats to the US homeland from the Islamic State militant group”?
Probably not, because as the nation barrels towards yet another war in the Middle East and President Obama prepares to address that nation on the “offensive phase” of his military plan Wednesday night, mainstream media pundits and the usual uber-hawk politicians are busy trying to out-hyperbole each other over the threat Isis poses to Americans. In the process, they’re all but ignoring any evidence to the contrary and the potential hole of blood and treasure into which they’re ready to drive this country all over again.
The White House declared on Tuesday night that it needn’t bother to ask Congress for war powers, and Congress is more than happy to relieve itself of the responsibility of asking for them – or, you know, voting. Members of both parties have actually been telling the president to ignore the legislative branch entirely – as well as his constitutional and legal requirements. It seems so long ago now that presidential candidate Obama said, “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”
“What if it comes over and you can’t pass it?” asked Sen Lindsay Graham, as though he wouldn’t want democracy getting in the way of a nice war. The aforementioned Sen Nelson said he thinks the president should go aheadand strike Isis all he wants, but added that “there are some legal scholars who think otherwise, so let’s just put it to rest”. Those pesky legal scholars with their “laws” and that “Constitution” of theirs, always slowing things down.
Thanks to this wall-to-wall fear mongering, a once war-weary public is now terrified. More than 60% of the public in a recent CNN poll now supports airstrikes against Isis. Two more polls came out on Tuesday, one from the Washington Post and the other from NBC New and the Wall Street Journal, essentially concluding the same thing. Most shocking, 71% think that Isis has terrorist sleeper cells in the United States, against all evidence to the contrary.
So where to from here? Well, those airstrikes the public have been scared into supporting, which already numbering the hundreds, will reportedly expand fast – not only in Iraq but into Syria. The White House even has shiny new euphemism for such military attacks, as the Wall Street Journal reported: “Mr. Obama could green-light the new ‘sovereignty strikes’ in his address on Wednesday.” George Orwell would be proud.
It’s also strange that we are unquestionably calling the Free Syrian Army (FSA) the “moderate” opposition and putting our faith in their abilities, despite manyactual experts claiming they’re far from moderate and far from a cohesive army.As George Washington University’s Marc Lynch wrote in the Washington Post recently, “The FSA was always more fiction than reality, with a structure on paper masking the reality of highly localized and fragmented fighting groups on the ground.” The New York Times reported two weeks ago that FSA has a penchant for beheading its enemy captives as well, and now the family of Steven Sotloff, the courageous journalist who was barbarically beheaded by Isis, says that someone from the “moderate” opposition sold their son to Isis before he was killed.
So how, exactly, will the administration accomplish “destroying” Isis, when no amount of bombs and soldiers have been able to destroy al-Qaida or the Taliban in nearly 13 years of fighting? The administration openly admits it has no idea how long it will take, only that it won’t be quick. “It may take a year, it may take two years, it may take three years,” John Kerry said.
He didn’t add, “it might take another 13”, but he might as well have.
Or it might take forever. Just say it Kerry, you know you want to.
Even more disturbing, if the American public knew the truth would it even matter? With a middle class lifestyle increasingly a pipe dream, it’s far easier for the public to support dropping bombs from drones halfway across the world than it is to deal with the real economic issues affecting their daily lives.
Meanwhile what ever happened to al-Qaeda? Seems to me their brand as a fear mongering tool has simply lost its effectiveness. So enter ISIS. Never forget the following passage from George Orwell’s 1984:
On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns — after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces — at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally.
There was, of course, no admission that any change had taken place. Merely it became known, with extreme suddenness and everywhere at once, that Eastasia and not Eurasia was the enemy.
Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
For some of my previous thoughts on ISIS and related topics, see:
How The Washington Post and The New Yorker Refused to Publish an Article on Obama Admin Syria Lies
Before We Bomb Syria, What’s Happening in Libya?
Why is the U.S. Allied with Al Qaeda in Syria?
America’s Disastrous Foreign Policy – My Thoughts on Iraq
Blockbuster Report from WND – Jordanian Official Claims Americans Trained ISIS
My Latest Interview with Financial Survival Network – Is ISIS a False Flag?
James Foley Worked Under USAID, a Known U.S. Intelligence Front. Was He More Than Just a Journalist?
Here come the sovereignty strikes.
»
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Since there's no way that the few decent human beings left on the planet are ever going to prevail (and I don't presume to count myself as one of them), I'm personally hoping for a 100 Km diameter asteroid impacting on the equator, an 1859-level Mass Coronel Ejection that swamps the entire Northern and Southern hemispheres, and a Yellowstone eruption (just to be sure that the US is totally taken care of) all at the same time. Let's start this show over at the level of a few bacteria in the oceans.
But then I'm just a foolish old Jeremiah howling at the wind.
Don't worry Fukushima finished us off.
Look at the pics of fish, its tragic.
Which ones exactly?
A random google search shows an awful lot of badly photoshopped images... The few that did seem genuine reminded me of the mutant cancerous carp in Lake Erie/Lake Ontario before they actually cleaned up the Great Lakes (well, not so much man's doing but that invasive zebra mussel which is nature's little water purifier at the rate of a gallon per day per mussel...)
Besides, as a nuclear professor I knew once said "The solution to pollution is dilution"... That statement alone is the reason he's teaching at a backwater university in Missouri... However, what is interesting is that he did know a great deal about France's nuclear fuel recycling. Basically the truly nasty crap in France occupies half a basketball court stacked about 2 to 3 feet high.
The US, on the other hand, has radioactive crap everywhere, and a lot more of it than half a basketball court in space. The fact we don't recycle our spent fuel just shows off more of that American exceptionalism we have all come to know and believe in. The only thing exceptional today is the depth of our stupidity when it comes to the nuclear sciences.
"Did you know that the US government’s counterterrorism chief Matthew Olson said last week that there’s no “there’s no credible information” that the Islamic State (Isis) is planning an attack on America and that there’s “no indication at this point of a cell of foreign fighters operating in the United States”? Or that, as the Associated Press reported, “The FBI and Homeland Security Department say there are no specific or credible terror threats to the US homeland from the Islamic State militant group”?"...
Ain't it all strange and "wonderful" in thw worst sense possible!...
Matt Olson like all of the non-covert/analysts before him -
NGIA -There were no images of Iraqi troops at the border of Kuwait, but courtesy of the war mongers Hill & Knowlton (and proudly still in business after all these years) followed with the PR stunt that sold it along with Charles Jaco at CNN...
George Tenet on the second invasion of Iraq in 2003 who lied too many times to count on Saddam Hussein's WMDs, and was contradicted by the anaylst(s) within his own agency too many times to count, but we got another invasion anyway.
Perhaps Sergey Lavrov puts it into perspective with this summary better than anyone earlier this week of what the U.S. is and always has been?
So what's the consensus here on Alex Jones?
Zio-sponsored shill
or
The real deal
I think he has done good. He tells people to do their own research, when they do they find out it's the Jews.
Plus he talks about bankers and globalists, which are Jews.
Unlike the Vietnam War, in which the American soldiers were unwilling draftees, now ALL the soldiers are volunteers = if you don't want to go to war, then don't join the military. Very challenging concept for the rotted out brains of left-wing anti-war socialist parasites. HOWEVER, confiscation of our earnings to pay the entitlement programs that the socialist parasites live on is NOT voluntary - focus your complaints on that injustice, not volunteers going off to participate in what they volunteered for.
Paying for war is not voluntary.
"now ALL the soldiers are volunteers"
looks to me like a high portion of
the soldiers are mercenaries,
such as Blackwater and other
"independent contractors"
It is always worth checking out Academi's career page to see if they are ramping up employment, and the type of contract positions they have open. (Actually this line of thinking works for any company to possibly see what direction they are heading in...)
Mercenaries are the ultimate voluntary participants undeserving of any sympathy.
The way Q99X2 ended up without any bankers was this: The bankers stole everybody's money and used that money to build an army and system of organized terrorist groups to attack the people that the bankers were taking the money from. The bankers took so much money from the citizens of Q99X2 that their tummy's began to growl. In addition the terrorist cell members tummy's also began to growl. The bankers on Q99X2 could not quit sucking all wealth out of the planet. They were like pedophiles that can't stop until they are locked up. Anyhow, resources became limited the bankers could not even afford to pay their army enough to keep the soldiers tummy's from grumbling. That is when the scientists, physicists, army personnel, hillbillies, biotech students and computer scientists lost their moral leanings that allowed all existence to continue to exist. They collectively unleashed a spontaneous wrath upon all bankers and oligarchs, families of oligarchs and any creature (bankers were not the only creatures on Q99X2. There were also politicians, corporations and various sorts of vermin) that had over $10,000,000 associated with its name.
Since that time we have rarely had to use the sacrificial pyramids to keep freedom and prosperity alive and well on Q99X2.
They don't care. It's a litmus test for their manhood or libido. It's not their family going to war. So they get to score points in their office environment or among their friends.
I was in the navy. These pilots know this is bullshit. And they know the risks. And they know those risks are controllable.
Funniest story I've heard was from a corpsman. He said they would routinely get these people in Afghanistan bring their wives in for medical treatment and claim that she was "broken". They ask this guy questions and he would tell her that he's having sex with her, but she's not producing children. So of course, they ask "well, what are you doing?" Turns out he's generally plugging her in the duce. And when they tell the guy you need to have sex with the vagina to get this job done, they usually respond with a disgusted face as if "why would I do that? It's unclean."
And it's because as boys they were in turned plugged in the ass. And that's not "gay". (Not in the western gay identity garbage they've created.) Gay is about man love. Not Dude on Dude sex. So that's how this goat herding population understands sex. It can't even be a growing menace. They're being held back by not knowing which hole to stick it in, among other things.
That's this area of the world. This is what we're talking about. This is the "threat".
The American public is sick of all the hype and want to be left the fuck alone so they can try and survive until next payday. How YOU doin'
Funny how they like the idea of killing people at a distance like getting meat at the supermarket without the need to watch the animal die and be cut up. Then ISIS cuts a head or two off and it shocks that death can be personal and final.
The North Vietnamese absorbed a lot of B-52 raids without John McCain getting free once.....so I guess bombing a few Toyotas in the desert won't change much either. The US taxpayer gave ISIS so much weaponry as their 120,000 man Iraqi Army ran away just as it did when Rumsfeld invaded only to entrap them in guerilla warfare.......so it will be with ISIS which next year will call itself Yankee Doodle Killers
The American Public. Come on Banzai, give us a colorful picture(s)
Basically only 1% of population has volunteered/served since the all volunteer military came into being in the mid 70'S......So all the other tough guy poseur's who have weapons....well... I would not count on untrained irregulars they always fade fast....but they make great targets,,,chickenhawks fer sure is my vote, Go Chargers! lol.
"really a scared, propagandized, coward
hiding in one of our nation’s endless cubicle rows?"
Sounds about right..
one would think that a nation that would murder and maim thousands of innocent people for a crime they did not commit would avenge the beheading of a citizen by a group that openly admitted the murder.
the bottom half of the class has always ruled the world. in the old days smart, informed dissenters were simply murdered. .gov has always considered the intelligentsia effete intellectual snobs, elitists and the like. today, .gov makes sure the majority of the population needs to be told the sky is blue and their ignorance is glorified as an integral part of a great american character. americans love being just another brick in the wall. it is near impossible to break that wall now. this is the eve of destruction led by the bottom half of the class.
Let's face it. We're helpless.
years back was in NH. BnB near my sons camp. 9/11, Iraq war, Bush/Cheney days. Post Spanish RR bombing. CNN on TV.
CNN annouces UK's metro police killed a likely terrorist. Everyone at b'fast was glad-handing. I thought something seemed wrong and said
so to rounds of derision. turns out they killed the wrong kid.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/24/july7.uksecurity3
Not one of them said "i was wrong, u were right".
"Live free or die" my ass. never forget that day.
The Americans, Americans. So great, so smart. Working their lives away in their fucking cube farms.
IRS state/local taxmen takes at "LEAST" half. Then on the way home you stop to "FILL" your fucking tank. 25%-45% goes to the taxman. Then you stop to purchase your provisions, taxman takes another 5%-20%. Wow, you love your job don't you stupid American.
Then don't forget your property tax. Electricity price hikes, water/sewer price hikes. Storm water tax! Don't forget your "FEDERAL RESERVE" tax, yes you do pay one, your do-lars deflate, rapidly.
Americans, so smart, so hard working and productive. Stupid Slaves for the governments and banksters!
The only terrorists that concern me are those who are armed by the state and get their paychecks from the state [cops and the military] - now that is some terrorism to be truly concerned about....
The answer is a little bit of both. As someone whose life was terribly interrupted by 9/11, I can say most veterans are tired of the crap.
Just stop screwing up our country. We need adults in charge. We do not have that right now.
There is no war in ISIS but we are trying like hell to find one. If we venture off and do this again be ready for a breakdown in the chain of command.
No one is going to tolerate tied hands again. It's got to be all or nothing.
Listen. Let's be honest here. There is no real honor in your USSA military men. "OH, BUT WHAT ABOUT MY PENSIONS AND PROMISES OF FUTURE PAYMENTS FROM MY OVERLORD".
"I BETTER NOT UPSET THE .mil APPLECART".
In the "THEATER" or "RUNNING" an edgy undercover "BLOG", still the same dependent "PUSSIES" formally recognized as cube farmers.
Hah Washington full of lawyers covering their assess....of course POTUS won't go through congress and follow constitutional protocol....
That would mean a formal declaration of war...and in fact would codify it...thus exposing them to the geneva convention which the US are signatories and opens both sides up to War Crime tribunals at The Hague once the shooting stops.....
Obama and his criminal admin don't want any of that...this will be a perpetual "police action", "anti terror exercise" with this current admin controlling both sides......
The hot topic this week Ray Rice and domestic abuse. The hidden crisis. ISIL is sooo last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyCEexG9xjw
I know many amazingly tough Americans as individuals. However, there are few smart Americans, fewer leaders, even fewer heroes, and many clueless, cowardly and sellout traitors that call themselves Americans and dual citizens.
How many times do I have to see some insiders or high level gutless coward retire and then be hailed as some sort of hero whistle blower. Do these cowards really feel better collecting their pension while pretending to be some sort of a hero that is doing their patriotic duty? An actual Hero is someone that risks all up to and including death for change they can believe in. How about the hundreds of top military that have been forced out? Have I missed it? Or will even one risk everything to speak out and rally the masses?
What I currently see is a large mass of angry confused heavily armed potential heroes with no leadership or direction. Most leaders that do step forward are or appear to be some sort of provocateur or government agent. Screen any of these mf'ing leaders like your families lives depend on it. Organize into lawfully assembled groups up to and including militias. Don't preach or instill violence until you are doing something lawful or defending yourselves. Take every action possible to rally the willing and stifle the opposition. Cover your six at all times. Be ready to risk everything. How difficult can this be? You've have 13 years to come out of the shock and get your act together. Meanwhile your friendly neighborhood tyrants are boxing you into smaller and smaller cubes and poisoning you faster by the day. WTF is taking so long? WTF will it take to get your collective heads out of your asses and do something substantial, visible, meaningful to stem the tide?
"In Barbara Tuchman's book “The March of Folly,” she says that governmental behavior that is antithetical to the best interests of its citizens is common in history. She calls it “Folly” and has written that if such government activities persist for long periods, they are very costly and historically end in national catastrophe."
It is the nature of the beast . Lethargic in the extreme , the general populace somehow have evolved a defensive meme structure that leads the self-appointed rulers into civil war . One of the Pleasures of Civil War .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-pleasures-of-civil-war.html
Why not be comfortable why fighting desperate battles ?
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2005/11/new-limited-war.html
Nothing to worry about.
Everyone in the queue - the largest cold - to buy the new iPhone.
If I'm not mistaken, sold a week before in China.
Everybody happy, the whole world happy, is no credit left.
Since no one will charge the account.
Then fucked!
hehe.
Nothin new here. Read the Koran and Hadith. Kinda like Mein Kampf....It's all about Jihad. Daar al Islam and Daar al Harb. Proper Moslems believe that jihad and protection of the Umma are all that count. Heretic Shia? Kill 'em. Christians Jews? Kill 'em. Unbelievers? Kill 'em. The feckless and weak "leaders" of the world, BHO, Cameron, even Putin don't get it, well maybe Putin did in Chechnya. Saudi royal family? Must die. King Abdullah (a direct descendant of the Prophet, PBOH) of Jordan? Must die. The Islamic State is all that matters, their time is now.
What to do? They must be totally destroyed militarily; those calling for "restraint" give True Believers know that Allah has turned them into puppets to be played. Nothing will stop them, nothing except all out unrestrained war against their Mujahideen and leaders (root word Jihad) . Otherwise learn to speak Arabic and pay your Dhimmi tax, convert or die. Turn Mecca into a glass fused staging area to assemble Buicks. That they would understand. Pissing away a few trillion here and there brings them hope. They all hate us anyway, let's drop the big one now...
Go spew your MIC propaganda someplace else; better yet, go hide under your bed so the boogie man doesn't get you.
Glass Israel and the whole problem goes away.
A lot of people here need to google Revelation 13 USA.
The destruction of the US will be swift and complete.
Prepare accordingly.
Yeah, since your bible prophecies have a lock on the future, no need to try to wake people up.
On the contrary, they are the best reason to try to wake people up.
My experience with family and the general public give me no reason for hope. The deeper you delve into what the average American thinks, the more you see the vast waste land of ingnorance and religion that drive the sheeps thoughts.
I don't say that about friends, as I have only a handful and they are very concious of reality of the US system, and have no use for it in it's present form.
What is the average America on the issue of war. "Most are loud mouth braggers, few have even been in the Military, let alone in a combat role". 30% eat up the shit coming from the Zionest News Channel FOX. Another 30% eat up the shit on the other Zionest news channel CNN. Another 30% only read the Bible and nothing else but internet porn. That leaves 10% who live a rational life. Sadly, around 9 out of 10 of these profit from or are a driect part of government, the military or corporate profiteers. They thus support the war mongering as it lines their pockets with money.
1% !! That is all that is left to think independently, to read everything and to question everything. Many of these can see the insane game being played for money and power. But 1%? That isn't enough to change jack shit!
Anyone who watched any TV is an idiot and supports it all. This includes Hollywood's crap. You are foolish Jack if you think any of the channels are worthwhile. Click on TV and you support being a sheep.
The dark side of civilization through the ages :
One powerful head man said : They are the enemy. Its them or it will be us.
It always began a war of "grand ideals", of civilization. Anybody, everybody, who did not adhere to civilization's "us" criteria would get caught up. "For us or against us!"
First the declared enemy, then, as the war prolonged his friends and allies. As that did not achieve results, it begat more and more violence and the circle of war enlarged. War has its own logic fed on the death of those who fall, as blood spilt begats more bloodshed in the pain of unwarranted loss.
The army's generals, anxious to achieve results, then bought mercenary allies to fight their war for money, paid to all who accepted the rule "to the victors the spoils".
It begat a similar reaction from the other side who used the same tactics. Soon the whole region was sucked in as "spear carriers" for one side or the other. Now those "ideals" had been soaked in the odorless smell of money and the lustful greed it engenders like a bastard breed.
Thats what wars of civilization spiral into. It begins on grounds of ideology; creed or race; it ends into battle of distorted mindsets fed on personal ambition and vengeful prejudice as the war creates the spiral of deadly violence.
Eventually, the people tire of being used as canon fodder in a war without end. And the shout goes up to stop the senseless killings feeding the paranoia of those who rule, those who can never accept to stop the spiral, only crying out for more. As their credibility and survival as rulers are now at stake.
Now begins the reaction at home : all who say "stop the war" are labelled as seditious traitors and they deserve the same treatment as the enemy. The shout then goes up of "fifth column traitors" who are worse than the enemy as they be enemies to their own blood and kin. Heretics deserve a worse fate than the enemy whose culture is different.
All semblance of reason, of searching for causality, of ethics and search for truth, now gets burned in the bonfire fed on populist sentiment, now in fact animalistically motivated and relieved at an absence of sense of direction as fed morbidly on its own destructive momentum, seeking resolution only in more violence.
We have become our own worst enemies as we do not love the cardinal values of civilization : love freedom, love life, love humanity.
And as headless chickens running to our doom we cannot discern how to protect ourselves from its antithesis : by hating violence, by hating injustice, by hating undue privileges and by hating destroyers of truth.
There are some diseases of the mind that work like Ebola on the defenseless body. We saw it in Fascist times.
To defend "civilization" at "all costs" we become its worst enemies as we have lost our "antibodies", making us the disseminators of the Virus.
Tipping times are those when we as Civilization "lose it" ; the point of on return.
The idea, that one can protect oneself from hatred and violence, via hatred of injustice and violence, has to be one of the most naive and stupic assertions that I have read on ZH for a long time.
Just to stir your shit - when the Nazis told their soldiers that they were fighting the Soviets in order to destroy an inhumanly murderous threat to civilization, they were being absolutely factual, and nonetheless because the Nazis were also inhumanly murderous.
But yeah, let's all hold hands and sing Kum-Bah-Yah, that should solve the problem.
to ensure peace prepare for war; -- old saying. But never preempt feared violence by taking violence to invade others.
Remember Wyatt Earp. He always went for his gun second and to defend justice. He didn't sing Kum bah yah.
Westerns are built on simple but veridic ethics. Maybe they are naive, like "thou shalt not kill".
I don't understand the people who think that the answers to these question are all so obvious. Let's start with the fact that the USA shares borders with Canada to the north, and Mexico to the south, and there are two large oceans between the US and everyone else.
That was just as true back in 1939, let the lesson of those years is that it is sometimes much cheaper to nip foreign aggression in the bud. But the critical quesion is always, which threats are the ones that will mature into real problems if we don't act? Osama bin Laden, we probably should have taken more seriously. Saddam Hussien and Moammar Quadaffi, according to conventional wisdom, had learned their lesson and if left alone, would have restricted their violence to their domestic enemies.
Perhaps - but such questions always disolve in a cloud of hypotheticals and counterfactuals. Anyone who claims to know for sure, is probably not very smart, and has no opinions that are worth listening to.
Does anyone care what Americans think? They're the worst-educated people in the First World.
They don't have any thoughts, they have emotional responses, which good advertisers know how to provoke.For years Americans have been more concerned for their safety then necessary, could be because we are a coddled bunch. Looking across the world we live in one of the safer and more secure nations, yet many Americans claim that they live in fear of being attacked. In an opinion piece written by Ted Koppel and printed in the WSJ last year titled; "America's Chronic Overreaction To Terrorism" Kopple delves into terrorism over the last several decades. Some readers thought Koppel was acting as a mouth piece for Obama but in fact Obama is in no hurry to stop the NSA program.
Kopple wrote; Terrorism, after all, is designed to produce overreaction. It is the means by which the weak induce the powerful to inflict damage upon themselves. At home, the U.S. has constructed an anti-terrorism enterprise so immense, so costly and so inexorably interwoven with the defense establishment, police and intelligence agencies, communications systems, and with social media, travel networks and their attendant security apparatus, that the idea of downsizing, let alone disbanding such a construct, is an exercise in futility. More on how Americans should show a little spine in the article the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/08/americans-should-show-little-spin...