Monday, June 29, 2009

The New Boss

It's been about six months. Is there any indication that Obama will be significantly different than his predecessors? According to Il Principe, no. In a wonderful article, in which he highlights the Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr who warned Americans against what he called “our dreams of managing history,” the Prince pulls no punches in pointing out that Obama is indeed a new boss, just like the old boss.

One only has to look at the abysmal record of trying to manage the future of two foreign countries the United States invaded and has since occupied to see that the future cannot be certain or managed.

Incredibly, most Americans do not see the connection between the annual half trillion-defense budget and open-ended wars in two foreign countries, to the demise of America as an economic world power.

Forget about drawing a line in the sand like the Bush administration said in 1991 and the First Gulf War, more Americans need to get their head out of the sand and realize the drag on the economy the trillions of dollars spent on the Pentagon is having on the American economy.

What's your opinion? Do most Americans have their head in the sand about military spending? In the beginning of Obama's term we talked about it: Is Afghanistan going to be just another Iraq? What do you think? Are you hopeful that we can pull out of Iraq eventually and manage Afghanistan without going completely bankrupt?

Please leave a comment.

4 comments:

  1. The lack of comments by your readers is an indication of the ignorance many Americans have of the larger geo-political issues and the feeling they have of not being able to change anything. This type of submissive behavior is what the two party system incumbent party thrives off of.
    One can only hope the Internet and the social mobilization aspect of it can help launch and establish a viable third and fourth party to represent the interests of average Americans.
    The quicker more people see that both parties are part of the problem and begin to organize some kind of grass roots political movement, the demise of America as a world power will only continue unabated.

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  2. Either that, or no point was made that wasn't already abundantly clear.

    Sorry to burst you bubble.

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  3. I thought the lack of comments on this thread was because everybody's too busy arguing about guns on the other threads.

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  4. Hmmm, guess I will have to pull out my own guns on constitutional law and set these 2nd boys straight. As I have always said, as Bush, Cheney, and Gonzalez showed after 11-9, ( you are in Europe Mike) rights can be taken away. Like George Carlin once said, the bill of rights should be renamed the bill of privileges. Maybe you should post a Carlin clip of that if you find it. He was a great comedian. May he rest in peace.
    Now back to my blog and the continuing look at peak oil and the decline of the US dollar.

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