Progressive Americans, that’s a joke. Barack Obama promised change and one of the first things he did after clinching the Democratic nomination, was to continue the rhetoric of the Bush Administration. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel like a knife has been driven through my heart, and I didn’t even support him! The truth is what’s happened to this country? I’m no fool, I know that we have been involved in toppling unfriendly governments and have started imperialistic wars for a long time now. The difference between then and now is that America no longer looks after just it’s “interests”, it wants control of everything.
This is evident in the way that we allocate our budget. There are other nations in this world that have re-made their skylines into cities that look like futuristic panoramas out of a science fiction novel. America still looks basically the same since the 70’s. The only difference you can discern are the cookie-cutter malls with the same branded stores. We have no real mass transit that is any better than it was. There are other nations that run their trains in maglev technology. Our infrastructure is falling apart. The Middle-Class is disappearing, and our industry is being outsourced to nations that can not only make things cheaper, but better.
Oh, but we have a military machine that is the envy of the world. We have space technology that can tell you the date on a dime lying on the sidewalk from a hundred miles in space. We have infra-red viewers that can tell how many people are in an apartment building. Our government can monitor any telephone conversation it wishes. We spend 51% of our budget on the military, and Obama wants to increase that. Why?
Who is our enemy? Is Iran the big bad force to be reckoned with? Are they going to invade New York and lock us into concentration camps? We are so concerned with Israel. What have they done for us? Do they protect American citizens and keep us safe? The reality of the situation is that they pay off our politicians and it’s almost impossible to run a national campaign without the support of AIPAC. Israel can take care of itself. The reason we are in the Middle-East is not Israel, but for the oil. The truth be known, we have all the oil we need in Alaska. The real truth is that we could have reduced our military spending and started research on energy alternatives.
This is an Imperialistic country that I’m afraid is no better that Germany was in the last century. Germany never fought a war of aggression according to its government. They were always “defensive wars”. We are doing the very same thing. We interfere in every country we deem “offensive”. Is it any wonder that the world hates us? I’m beginning to hate my own country. I served almost 21 years in Army green and I’m disgusted at what I see.
We have a few rational people in our government that stand for what is right. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Rep. Ron Paul, Sen. Russ. Feingold, Rep. Robert Wexler, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Bernie Sanders and others, their voices go unheard by the majority of ill-educated or politically inept Americans. Critical thinking has all but disappeared in this nation. There are very few Americans that question authority. When Obama promised “Change” without actually telling us what that change was, many Americans rallied to his cause. This writer sees no change in Obama’s message. All I see is the same rhetoric that every imperialist in America echo’s. It seems that we have been taken for another long ride.
I don’t want to attack Iran, and I don’t believe that most people in this country want to attack Iran. Hezbollah and Hama’s don’t threaten my family. The Quds force is no concern of mine. This is a ploy to dominate the Middle-East. This is all propaganda to involve Americans in a fight that is not ours. We want to control the Middle-East. That is fact, not fiction. The best way any American could stop our criminal government from attempting to do this is to call your Congressmen and Senators and tell them to support Impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney. We must also pressure Obama to recant his recent statements to AIPAC and pressure him to return to his pre-nomination support for a withdrawal from Iraq.
This is in all our interests. We have a mind-set in Washington of war and more war. Our entire economy is built upon the Military-Industrial-Complex that Eisenhower warned us about. We manufacture weapons of war that drives our economy. We manufacture airplanes, tanks, Humvees and other weapons of war. This is our economy. We are more like Sparta than Athens. If we abruptly stopped this war industry, we would sink like a rock. We must get out of the business of war and return to a peace-time economy. I know this article will fall on deaf ears, but all I can tell myself is at least I tried. Just remember what Senator Mike Gravel said to Obama in the second Democratic debate “Who do you want to nuke Barack”!”
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Timothy V. Gatto
