Tuesday, October 24, 2006

LET'S BE REAL

Let us be real.

The US occupation of the Middle East and Iraq is not about to end...even if the Democrats become the majority party.

The US occupied a disarmed Iraq precisely because Iraq had become disarmed...hence, no threat to invading troops.

The US is in the Middle East to stay...to secure oil for the longterm.

So, until I hear 'pols' decrying US Imperialism, I am not buying anyone's suggestion that the US is pulling out of the Middle East.

The "hunt for Bin Laden" and the "search for weapons of mass destruction" were simply pretexts for OCCUPATION and the warfare that ensues in establishing that occupation.

Exit strategy?

There never was an exit strategy, and there certainly is no serious exit strategy now.

The US will fritter away its manpower, human potential, material wealth, and "democratic principles" for the illusion of securing energy resources; and the US will try to maintain control of these resources by way of further military adventurism.

The longterm strategy is to secure the globe, the world--not by cooperation--but by OCCUPATION, by domination.

If I believed the Democrats have the vision and gumption to extricate us from this dreary cycle of violence, I would view the upcoming Democratic
landslide with delicious anticipation.

But I cannot.

Because, Folks, we are living in the IMPERIAL phase of the American Experience.

It isn't about Democrats v. Republicans or vice versa; the DEMOCRACY phase (such as it was) of the American Experience remains solely as an exercise in rhetoric and certain formulaic rituals.

If DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA had been a reality in the new millenium,
the OILIGARCHY would have packed their bags long ago.

11 Comments:

At 11:38 PM, Blogger chuck said...

Leazwell-
This is not a FUN topic. Thanks for leaving a comment.

My next blog entry will be about something less 'heavy'- maybe favorite recipes, or childhood memories of 'Capture The Flag' and 'Kick The Can', or the ecstasy of diving through ocean waves, or my favorite ski run, or my first "crush"-- or a series of blogs on 5-minute meals for seniors...who the heck knows?...anyway, I am not going to get bogged down in relentless political commentary, I hope...

Living is too precious...and life is too short to spend my time in diatribe.

Thanks again for weighing in on a 'heavy' topic!

LIVE LIGHTLY AND ENJOY!

 
At 12:56 PM, Blogger Mary said...

.. and all I can say is that I wish we weren't there with you. Not a fun topic, as you say.

 
At 11:38 PM, Blogger chuck said...

Mary-

I hope I am proven wrong.

You, Brits, learned the hard way the lessons of imperialistic over-reach.

Why Britain has to support US imperialistic over-reach after Britain has already learned the chastening LESSONS OF EMPIRE is something for Tony Blair to explain to the English electorate during the upcoming British election.

When I was swimming in the Pacific
today, these concerns were not uppermost in my consciousness.

I wanted to get wet, and then to get back to shore...which I did.

 
At 11:40 PM, Blogger Flea said...

Chuck, thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a nice comment, it made me feel good on a day I was down. I appreciate your opinion by just reading about me. I love your poems, I've bookmarked you and will visit more often.

 
At 11:41 PM, Blogger Flea said...

Chuck, thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a nice comment on a day I was actually feeling down. It lifted my spirit. Australian greetings.

 
At 3:16 PM, Blogger LJ said...

What cheers me Chuck (and I'm serious)is that the Empire is quickly going from "decline" to "fall." Not sustainable by any stretch of the imagination.
And after the world crawls out of whatever rubble there is (real and/or metaphoric), maybe we will have collectively learned something. One can hope.

 
At 11:17 PM, Blogger chuck said...

By sharing food and providing shelter(s), we keep hope alive.

With the growth of 'the commons' in many areas of human endeavor and aspiration, we nourish hope.

As we increase the circumference of the 'circle of opportunity' in the social sphere, we multiply the possibilities for manifesting deeper humane manifestations of the human spirit...all in an attitude of hope.

And we evolve...

 
At 6:52 AM, Blogger Jess D'Zerts said...

Definitely a world-class bad dream...

Speaking of sharing food (per your comment immediately above)... is it just me, maybe I have no sense of humor, but really, I'm kind of appalled by the news stories about pumpkin catapults. I guess this goes on throughout the country. Every three seconds, a child starves to death on the other side of the world, while we have such a conspicuous abundance that we can toss away food just to see it go splat? Not just pumpkins either, although they're certainly more shippable than tomatoes or some of the other food we play with (i.e. waste).

You probably heard about this on the news:

"Two victims of a weekend accident involving a medieval war weapon redesigned to toss pumpkins were released Monday from Legacy Emanuel Hospital. Jacob Roloff, 9, and Mike Detjen, 58, returned to Roloff Farms to recuperate from injuries they sustained when a 25-foot-high wooden trebuchet prematurely fired. The machine's 2,000-pound concrete counterweight dented Roloff's skull, requiring surgery, and repeatedly struck Detjen, a retired Beaverton engineer who needed 200-plus stitches." (Posted by Washington County Bureau October 30, 2006 16:20 on OregonLive.com).

You know how I am about cosmic signs. I don't know, maybe moving tons of pumpkins to the other side of the world is logistically and financially impossible. Still, I cringe when I see this kind of thing on the news. It's embarrassing.

(This was already on my mind when, quite coincidentally, I got a video from the library called The Girl in the Cafe, which turned out to be about addressing poverty at the G8 conference in Reykjavik, along with One.org's short video which is also online. I watched it last night, so it's quite on my mind this morning.)

 
At 12:05 PM, Blogger chuck said...

JESSIE

How to feed people is a more interesting problem than how to destroy people and/or their edifices.

 
At 4:44 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Chuck,
Thank you for stopping by at my blog. You are always welcome to come over and sit a spell. I like your blog. I hope you don't mind if I stopped in periodicly and take a peak inside your words.

Thanks

 
At 1:11 PM, Blogger chuck said...

Dave-
You are always welcome.

Hannelie-Thanks for visiting my blog!

Jessie-
In spite of the "bad dream" quality of my essay, I have been making phone calls for Democratic candidates with MoveOn.Org. It is always important to KEEP HOPE ALIVE!

 

Post a Comment

<< Home