To the American Voters
The past few years have seen a drastic increase in the number of policies that the government is pursuing that are far from being in the best interests of their people. I can't help but think of the fact that the majority of our leaders in America, Democrat, Republican, or otherwise, do not do what is in our best interests. I am beginning to think that this is a built-in facet of our two-party system, but whatever the reason it's not boding well for those of us who are concerned about the world we will leave (or not leave) our children and grandchildren.
Difficulties have been illustrated that average people have in becoming involved in the government. Could this be the reason why a very select few are meant to represent us, but seldom actually fullfill those obligations?
To give an example, killing civilians in Iraq, stealing their natural resources, allowing our Military Personnel and Civilian Contractors to operate above the law, and interning and torturing people who haven't been charged with (or can't be charged with due to a lack of any actual evidence) a crime is only going to increase the threat we face of terrorist attacks. These policies engender rage; the kind of rage the U.S. marine exhibited when they "snapped" and went on a civilian killing spree in Haditha due to one of their own dying, the kind of rage that leads people to follow madmen like Al-Zarqawi because they feel that have no other recourse.
To give another example, what American, prior to the huge propaganda offensive launched from 2001 to 2003, would have possibly supported the invasion of Iraq? What have the people of America gained from that invasion? Based on congressional appropriations (congress is what, half democrat? they're supporting these policies too) we have spent more than 280BILLION dollars on the war in Iraq. That does not include our 400BILLION dollar per year base "defence" budget, or money earmarked for the Orwellian "war on terror." That money could have paid for every child in america(under aged 15) to have had full health insurance coverage for the entire duration of the war (up to this day). It could also have paid to feed the hungry of the world (Amnesty International puts the figure at about 1.5BILLION per year) for close to two hundred years. When given a choice, presented with facts, what American would have chosen to go to Iraq?
There are countless other examples one could give: our spiraling national debt, the loss of millions of jobs since 2000, decay in american quality of living (I am not making this up: Mercer Human Resources group published their annual Quality of Living report on world cities in April, and only one american city, Honolulu, was in the top 30. 15 of the top thirty were in western europe.), and the slow and inevitable disappearance of personal freedoms. I flicked by Fox News the other day, and their byline was "The Cost of Freedom: Forget Social Security." Is that what Americans want?
Perhaps more people who have a rational and balanced view of the world should run for office. Perhaps we should not, as voters, be limited to basically two choices, neither of which has much difference from the other in policy. Perhaps someday our elected officials' actions will reflect our wishes.
That day is not today.
-------------
This post was written as a comment on the Question of the Day section of the American website My Left Wing.
Difficulties have been illustrated that average people have in becoming involved in the government. Could this be the reason why a very select few are meant to represent us, but seldom actually fullfill those obligations?
To give an example, killing civilians in Iraq, stealing their natural resources, allowing our Military Personnel and Civilian Contractors to operate above the law, and interning and torturing people who haven't been charged with (or can't be charged with due to a lack of any actual evidence) a crime is only going to increase the threat we face of terrorist attacks. These policies engender rage; the kind of rage the U.S. marine exhibited when they "snapped" and went on a civilian killing spree in Haditha due to one of their own dying, the kind of rage that leads people to follow madmen like Al-Zarqawi because they feel that have no other recourse.
To give another example, what American, prior to the huge propaganda offensive launched from 2001 to 2003, would have possibly supported the invasion of Iraq? What have the people of America gained from that invasion? Based on congressional appropriations (congress is what, half democrat? they're supporting these policies too) we have spent more than 280BILLION dollars on the war in Iraq. That does not include our 400BILLION dollar per year base "defence" budget, or money earmarked for the Orwellian "war on terror." That money could have paid for every child in america(under aged 15) to have had full health insurance coverage for the entire duration of the war (up to this day). It could also have paid to feed the hungry of the world (Amnesty International puts the figure at about 1.5BILLION per year) for close to two hundred years. When given a choice, presented with facts, what American would have chosen to go to Iraq?
There are countless other examples one could give: our spiraling national debt, the loss of millions of jobs since 2000, decay in american quality of living (I am not making this up: Mercer Human Resources group published their annual Quality of Living report on world cities in April, and only one american city, Honolulu, was in the top 30. 15 of the top thirty were in western europe.), and the slow and inevitable disappearance of personal freedoms. I flicked by Fox News the other day, and their byline was "The Cost of Freedom: Forget Social Security." Is that what Americans want?
Perhaps more people who have a rational and balanced view of the world should run for office. Perhaps we should not, as voters, be limited to basically two choices, neither of which has much difference from the other in policy. Perhaps someday our elected officials' actions will reflect our wishes.
That day is not today.
-------------
This post was written as a comment on the Question of the Day section of the American website My Left Wing.
posted by misneach | 6:54 PM
|
0 comments
