The Traq War
There are several reports in the news today that the remains of the pilot of the first American aircraft shot down during the war in Iraq have been found and identified. Navy Pilot Captain Michael Scott Speicher was shot down in Iraq in January 1981.
Young Americans have been dying in Iraq for 18-1/2 years, and we are still there. The government in Iraq has recently been hinting that it may be necessary for us to remain there longer, and now a few courageous members of the military are beginning to speak out and say that it is time to go home.
Now seems like a good time to reflect back on what we have achieved. If Capt. Speicher had a wife and a young baby when he went into combat, this child would now be almost 19 years old. Basically a full generation of people around the world have grown up seeing American troops killing Moslems and getting killed by other Moslems in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein was a bad guy indeed, just like many of the dictatorial regimes around the world. Because he threatened to kill President Bush the First, President Bush the Second’s troops finally did capture the guy. He was put on trial and then hanged. Saddam Hussein did in fact try to pretend that he had weapons of mass destruction, but it turns out that this mostly was to try and intimidate the Iranians, not the Americans. I say good riddance to Saddam and his brutal children.
The Republicans started this war under Bush I, and the Iraq war began to wind down somewhat under the Republican regime of Bush II. The Republicans refused to raise taxes to finance the large military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan with an almost religious fervor. Instead of paying for these wars as they spent the money, the Republican politicians in America used their credit card (borrowed from Communist China) to get the money to fight these wars.
At the beginning of the wars these severely mathematically challenged Republicans claimed to the American people that Iraq’s oil resources would more than pay for the cost of all this warfare. The irresponsible refusal of the Republican politicians to raise taxes to the level required to pay for this spending on warfare virtually bankrupted the United States of America.
So one thing which has been accomplished over the last 18-1/2 years of warfare is that we got our revenge on Saddam Hussein. I have been trying to think of anything else positive which these corrupt, hack politicians in Washington, D.C. have accomplished either in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The right wing fanatics claim that all this militarism has prevented any other Moslem fanatics from attacking America like they did on September 11, 1991. Maybe, but maybe not. This is pure conjecture which cannot be proven.
In the 1950’s Cincinnati and Detroit both had almost double the population that they have today. The American government made it more profitable for the industries to go overseas, so they did. It was a winner for the rich business owners. They could evade all those silly rules regarding environmental pollution, workplace safety, minimum wage laws, or treating their employees humanely. So over the last half a century all the good jobs have gradually moved away from America. It has taken 50 years, but now we are witnessing the fall of the last superpower.
All higher life forms on the plant earth have been destroyed several times by collisions with comets and meteors. Entire solar systems and galaxies are constantly being created and destroyed. It is just the normal way things work.
Rather than moaning and complaining about the decline of the American Empire it will be more useful to start studying how the next superpower might avoid making the same mistakes which were made by the Americans, the Romans, the Aztecs, and the Incas. One piece of very sincere advice: If you have the resources, pay to send your young child to language classes in Mandarin Chinese.
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