They Sold Us Out

I was watching my DVD of Dicken’s Christmas Carol when the phone rang. It was Max Angst.
“Art, I’m mad as hell. Art, they sold us out. Those bastards in Congress have given Bush everything he wants for the war.” Max said on the phone.
“Whoa Max! what’s happened? I replied.
“Yesterday, the Senate passed a $698 Billion Defense Authorization Bill that gives Bush everything he wants without saying one word about bringing out troops home.”
“Had the house passed that bill?”
“Yes, it was the conference report they voted on. Art, the vote was 90 to 3. Only Byrd, Feingold and Sanders voted against it.“
“Clinton and Obama voted for it?”
“No. They didn’t vote. Neither did Biden, Dodd and McCain.”
“So we got no leadership from that gang of phonies who want to be president.”
“That’s right art. It makes me sick. It shows this election is a farce. The country is owned by the big money defense industry, the Carlyle group. The rest of us are just hopeless jerks.”
“What do we do now?”
“I think I’ll go down to Bernie’s and tie one on. Want to meet me there, Art?”
“No Max, I was watching a Movie. I’ll just go back to that.
Max hung up.

Merry Christmas

And the three Kings stood besides their camels on the hill gazing down on the town over which the bright star shone. Every year Bernie hung the poster with the kings just inside the door on the wall opposite the bar, in the rear right hand corner he put up a six foot Christmas tree. He and his Mrs. always did a fine job of decorating their bar for Christmas. I looked forward to it; it told me the season was upon us now. Max Angst was in his usual spot and he smiled as I sat beside him.
“The place looks nice, doesn’t it, Art,” he said to me.
“Yes Max it does. I love this time of the year. It speaks of all the better things in life, peace on Earth, love for your fellow man.”
The door opened and John Braun walked in accompanied by a man in a Marine officer’s uniform. John was a carpenter, a man who could do wonders with wood and any other material you might think of. He was a nice enough guy, but not a person who could carry on a serious conversation. He and the marine sat down a few stools away from us and he said hi.
“Max, Art how are you guys today?”
“Fine John. And you?” Max asked.
“Real good. My cousin Glen here had some business in Chicago and stopped to see me. He just got back from Iraq.”
“Well Glen I’m glad to see you got back safely,” I said.
“Glen this is Art Hambach and Max Angst, “ John introduced us and we shook hands.
“ You’re the first person I’ve met who served in Iraq. What did you think of it?” Max asked.
“The ‘business’ I had in Chicago was to visit the widow of a friend who got killed there. I think Iraq sucks. But after 9/11 its clear we have to take those terrorists on. I’m a Marine and that’s my job.”
“Glen, I sure you believe that what you’re doing is protecting people like me. I appreciate that. But I’ve read a lot about Iraq and I don’t see how 9/11 and Iraq are connected,” Max said.
“Max, I don’t know you. I don’t know who you are or what you believe. But its Christmastime and I’d like to assume the people I meet share the happy spirit of that season. So, I’ll explain my feelings to you. It is my experience that there is a growing hatred of my country in the Moslem world. These people are not pussys. They attack people they hate. The attacks on 9/11 prove they hate us. They will come at us again if we don’t do something to stop them. That’s what Iraq is all about. We’re showing them we’re not to be messed with.”
“There are as many kinds of Moslems as there are kinds of any group of humans, Glen. Sure some are violent, but others are passive and others seek positive ways to get on in the world. There are also very intelligent Moslems and very stupid Moslems. If one group of Moslems attacks us and we respond by attacking a different group from those that attacked us, many Moslems will develop a negative view of us. They will think that we’re stupid, or they will think that we hate all Moslems,” Max said.
“Max, surely you agree Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden are the violent type of Moslem. Bin Laden takes responsibility for 9/11, but Hussein tried to kill the first President Bush. They both hate us and as the old saying goes the enemy of my enemy is my friend. It has been said that Hussein backed Bin Laden’s 9/11 attack. I haven’t seen that disproved.”
“The vast majority of Moslem’s are unhappy with their governments, Glen. England and France set up most Mid-East countries after World War One and they are secular dictatorships more interested in the leading group dominating the country and taking all they can from it for themselves. Various groups have tried unsuccessfully to stand against them. In the last decade or so the opposition have been Fundamentalist religious groups. Hussein belongs to the secular group; Bin Laden is a Fundamentalist. They are archenemies; they want to destroy one another. They’d never come together even to attack the United States,” Max said.
“But our country hasn’t been attacked again. We went after Bin Laden in Afghanistan and Hussein in Iraq. We kept them so busy protecting their own butts that they haven’t come after us.”
“But not too busy to attack in Madrid and London. Isn’t that strange, Glen?”
“We’ve covered our self at home. It would be a good trick to get on a plane with a weapon today, Max.”
“Why take a plane, sneak across the Mexican border. A couple of million people do it every year. This reminds me of a discussion I heard the other day. A guy was saying the lack of another attack since 9/11 raises the question of whether or not the first attack was what the government said it was. He said the public only has the government’s word that the hijackers were a bunch or Arabs.”
“Bin Laden takes responsibility for the 9/11 attack and he says the accounts given of that day are true, so I’d say the governments account are verified,” Glen said.
“The other day on the television program Good Morning America a group of young Pakastanis were interviewed. Bin Laden was mentioned and the young Pakastanis insisted he was nothing more than an American tool, a CIA operative. If that’s true, it raises the question of whether or not 9/11 was a CIA operation, that the whole thing was a creation of the Neo Cons in the White House,” Max said.
“That’s crazy. Why would they do that?” Glen asked.
“Money and to protect Israel,” Max answered.
“I could understand an argument that some of the Neo-Cons would want to take Iraq out of the picture to protect Israel, but I don’t get this money thing. Do you want to expand on that Max.”
“The Carlyle group, both Bushes have been involved with it. I’ve read Papa Bush is deeply invested in it. It is the biggest defense organization in the American world and I’ve read it has made hundreds of billions of dollars on the war in Iraq. Are we in Iraq to make money for the gang in the White House?”
“Whoa! Now your bad mouthing the United States, the country that I’ve taken an oath to protect. Do you want to withdraw that last statement Max?”
“Glen I love everything the United States stand for, but I’m afraid it may have gotten into the hands of the wrong people. I’m sure you and the vast majority of the military are defending the ideals of freedom and liberty for which this country was founded. But, I’m beginning to believe there are people in positions of power in this country that are using their high rank to empower themselves and make themselves rich. The rest of us are suffering because of them. Glen, if you want to defend our country, stand up to them.”
Glen got up and headed for the door. “C’mon John lets get out of this joint,“ he said as he went out the door
Max sat staring at the door after it closed behind the marine. He took a sip on his beer and then turned to me. ”Maybe I should’ve .kept my big mouth shut, Art,” he said to me.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be in Iraq, Max,” I replied.

Why I Hate George Bush!

What an old fart I am, I have seen twelve presidents in office. There were some I liked: Franklin Delanore Roosevelt, Bill Clinton and sometimes Jack Kennedy. Most I took with a grain of salt not really liking them or hating them but thinking they might have done better than they did. Only two I really hated, Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush. bothTexans. At this time I goning to give you my reason for hating our current President George W. Bush.
. Last night on the Bill Moyer”s show a guest describe the utter hell that the invasion of Iraq has brought down on the Iraqi people. Hundreds of thousand dead, three million driven from their homes. Those still living in Iraq experiencing daily horror including never knowing when they’ll face a life threatening attack and many other terrors. I’m sure the invasion was nothing more than a greedy grab for both the wealth of Iraq and whatever could be stolen from the United States. It brought hell to so many innocent Iraqi’s. Damn Bush and his gang.
A lot of Americans are suffering because of the Bush administration. Because our government in no way attempted to prevent it a large part of US industry was shipped overseas depriving many American worker of his livelihood. The Unions found themselves in a bad situation and many of the rights, privileges and benefits that had been won in earlier labor struggles were lost. Working for a living became much more unpleasant if you could find a job. A lot of Americans lost friends and love ones in Bush’s unnecessary wars. It is a really expensive thing to get sick in our country today and bush did nothing to alleviate that situations instead he supported the medical industry and insurance industry at every turn. Bush has hurt so many Americans.
When George Bush came into office there was no Federal Deficit the Clinton administration had more money coming in than was going out. In a year the Bushites had turned that around and today the United States Government is further in Debt – close to nine billion dollars—than ever before. They blame this on the war, but we’re not fighting an enemy that draws us into pitched battles or requires us to use a large amount of heavy weaponry. The strange thing about this expenditure is that the Pentagon can’t account for most of it. We really don’t know where this money is going. I feel the Neocons are pulling of the biggest rip off in human history.
The economic attack mentioned above is part of a large-scale attack on America’s children. They will have to pay this debt. Another aspect of this attack is the cost of higher education, In the last six years tuition costs have skyrocketed. Yet, a person cannot make a decent living without extensive education. The middle level jobs that got many people I knew a decent lifestyle have been shipped overseas and won’t be available to today’s kids. Health care costs have shot up. America has always been proud of the high level of its medical care, but today we stand below all but a few industrial countries in the care provided. Our children are not going to have soundness of body and mind necessary to compete in tomorrow’s world. Today Congress is trying to correct this, but Bush threatens to veto the bill they're sending him to do this.The attack on our children shows how very vile Bush and the neocons are.
I will continue with this theme tomorrow.
Max Angst

Ten Years More in Iraq

The situation has been made clear. General David Petraeus, that honorable warrior, gave it to us straight. We’re going to be in Iraq for ten more years and maybe more,US forces could be needed in Iraq for a decade to battle insurgents, the top coalition commander said Sunday while vowing a "forthright" review in September on whether a troop surge is working.
Speaking on Fox News, General David Petraeus said there was broad recognition in Washington that Iraq's daunting challenges would not be resolved "in a year or even two years.""In fact, typically, I think historically, counter-insurgency operations have gone at least nine or 10 years," he said.
This of course is nothing new. Although Republican leaders like Bush and Cheney haven’t been clear on it there have been many indications that from the beginning they intended to stay in Iraq a long time. That’s why they built the largest US Embassy in the world in Baghdad. That is why they’ve built fourteen huge bases around the country to house US troops. Their true goals can be seen in the legislation that they’ve given the Iraqi Congress. These laws when passed give control and a huge share of the profits from Iraqi oil to US oil companies. The fourteen bases are to protect the operations of the Oil companies. So far the Iraqi Congress has refused to pass these laws. Many of its members claim the proposed legislation is nothing more a robbery of their countries resources.
Establishing bases around the world to protect multi-national corporate operations is nothing new. There are over seven hundred such bases. Some say that protecting corporate operations is the main function of the US military. It costs the US taxpayer over three hundred billion dollars a year and gives him very little in return.
It seems to me that this is the major issue in the 2008 Presidential Campaign. The United States has too many needs—our superstructure is falling down around our ears, our healthcare system does not provide our people with the necessary care that other country provide, our industry has been shipped overseas depriving millions of jobs, etc.—to afford to spend such large amounts to protect the operations of organizations that balk at paying the fair share of taxes. I expect the candidates to bring this problem to the attention of the citizenry and offer solutions to this problem. Especially the expenditure on the military must be cut in half. There is need for such expenditure. No other country spend a quarter of what the United States spends. Of course terrorists spend no huge sums, nor do the have large and expensive weapons.
Max Angst

Military Spending

Corruption in Military Spending

An article in today’s New York Times reports that fraud was widespread in military contracts for supplies and services emanating from US military bases in Kuwait. Indications are that the fraud may go far beyond these instances. It seems that at the same time many members of the military are fighting and dying others are ripping off the taxpayer and the amounts involved are tremendous.
Since 1980, except for 1998 and 1999, the annual defense budget exceeded three hundred billion dollars. Beginning with 2003 we spent the following amounts in billions of dollars on our military: 2003 404.91, 2004 455.91, 2005 495.31, 2006 535.91, 2007 527.41. That’s a lot of money much more than any other country spent. In 2005 the top ten military spenders were (in billions of Dollars): The United Kingdom 48.3, France 46.2, Japan 42.1, China 41, Germany 33, Italy 27, Saudi Arabia 25.2, Russia 21, India 20, a total of 251.8 The United States spent more on its military than the top ten other nations combined. Was such a rate of spending really necessary? It’s true the US was at war, but their enemies were insurgents and militias without major weaponry. Hundreds of billions of dollars wasn’t necessary to meet their challenge. The US does maintain an Imperial system with more than 700 bases across the globe. Has the American people ever been asked if this is what they want done with their tax money? We need better schools, our transportation system is old fashion and run down, our health care system is behind that of most other industrial nations and I could go on and on. Maybe we should be spending our money on these things rather than a meaningless war in Iraq and military bases spread across the planet intended to protect the interest of Multi-national corporations.
But nobody talks about this problem. The media rarely mentions it. O.J. Simpson’s antics get a hundred times the coverage. Nor, is this problem a part of the presidential campaign. But it is the most important problem facing our nation, for to afford this vast military expenditure we’ve had to borrow. Today our country is deeper in debt than ever before and that debt is owed to foreign national banks. Japan, China and South Korea hold our marker for most of the nearly nine trillion dollars. Furthermore, daily more borrowing is necessary just to keep the government running. If the lenders decide they can no longer finance our government’s machinations, we will face financial pandemonium.
All of this makes me question if our government is on the level. Could it be that our government in Washington is a great conspiracy to rob the American taxpayer. If this issue is not raised among our presidential candidates, and presented to the American voters, I will have to assume the great American experiment has failed.

Mr. Ahmadinejad's Visit

So were not going to allow President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran visit the site of the fallen World Trade Center when he comes to New York. Those opposing the visit point out that his government has opposed US presence in Iraq, has supported the militias that have struggled with American forces causing the deaths of many of our troops. Iran has even supplied the design and materials for the IED’s that are the major cause of American deaths. Besides Iran refuses to give up his program to develop atomic weapons (we don’t buy his claim he’s only trying to develop atomic fuels). He doesn’t have the moral credentials to make such a visit.
Let’s consider these reason for banning President Ahmadinejsad’s visit.
Is Iran really wrong for opposing America’s invasion of Iraq? I don’t think they’re so far out of line. Suppose some powerful country invaded Mexico; wouldn’t the United States oppose such an invasion in most cases. Or suppose that the invader was considered the representative of a religion that had a history of invading countries populated by members of your religion, wouldn’t you be right in opposing the invasion
A year after the invasion, Iraq was in bloody turmoil. Sunni Moslems attacked Sheite Moslems and vice versa. Many thousand innocent civilians were slaughtered. Various groups developed militias to protect their people, the Sheites among them. Iran being a Sheite country nearby where the carnage was taken place reached out a helping hand to their co-religionists. It seems to me this was a humane thing to do considering the United States was unable to control the violence.
The United States attacked the Sheite militias and armed conflict occurred. The militias faced a mighty enemy and were thus in a bad situation. Once again Iran reached out to help their brother Muslims against the Crusaders. I feel the situation was brought on by the unnecessary and unfair American invasion. I was appalled by it and I can understand how the Iranians must have been outraged by the deaths of so many of their fellow Muslims.
The technical proficiency of the American military leads the world. The militias engaging them had no advanced weaponry. Mortars were their most threatening weapons. The Iranians claim they supplied no weapons to the Iraqi’s, but if they did one could understand their motivation. If we didn’t want to face such weapons we shouldn’t have gone to Iraq in the first place.
The most dire accusation against Iran is that it is attempting to obtain atomic weapons. The US and its allies threaten to attack Iran if it does gain such weapons. I don’t want Iran to have atomic weapons, but I don’t want the United States or any other nation to have them either. I understand why Iran wants atomic weapons. Israel, a nearby adversary, has them. Also, the United States, a country that now has a history of attacking other nations unprovoked, has the mightiest atomic arsenal in the world. The United States has been making threats towards Iran. I don’t believe Iran should continue its program to obtain atomic weapons. Instead it should lead a planetary campaign to remove atomic weapons from our world. By doing so Mr. Ahmadinejad would solidify his claim to the moral right to visit the World Trade Center site.
Max Angst

v

HYPOCRISY

George Bush and his administration are hypocrites. Claiming a born again morality, they have ignored Christian teaching at every turn. Jesus taught us to love not only our friends but also those who opposed us. The invasion of Iraq with its slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizen was completely opposite of Jesus’ central teachings. The Iraqi’s never did Americas any harm; they didn’t have the wherewithal not having a navy or air force that could reach America. Still the good Christians of the White House invaded their country, destroyed their country’s infrastructure and triggered a civil war amongst the various Iraqi factions that has made living in that nation a horror. Three million Iraqi’s have been made homeless a large number have been driven from the country. General David Patreaus, US commander in Iraq, gave a recent display of the hypocrisy. Most Americans and people across the world have been calling on America to give a proposal for their withdrawal from Iraq in the near future. Patreus was to address Congress this month supposedly to present such a plan. Instead he told Congress it was quite probable the US would be in Iraq for ten years or more. Hearing that I felt betrayed.
Bush’s hypocrisy has domestic aspects. Again looking to Jesus’ teaching to love our fellow humans we find the Bush administration waging war on the middle class. Their policies drove the jobs of the middle class overseas while driving the costs of health, education and transportation through the roof. The price of gas, a commodity that the middle class life style is based on, has doubled during Bush’s term in office. A growing number of employers cannot afford to stay in business and supply their employees with health insurance, the traditional way of people gaining health care coverage in our nation. College tuitions have increased substantially in every year since Bush came in to office. Yet, Bush has done nothing to deal with any of these problems. He does though pour large sums—approximately $350 Billion a year-- down the military industrial rat hole. I’m not talking about paying for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; these were funded by supplemental allocations. What I’m saying is that Bush found it appropriate to spend all this money on the military – when looked at closely this is little more than corporate welfare—but little is spent on the needs of the average American. Tax cuts were the same, large cuts for the wealthy much smaller cuts for the working and middle classes that needed them. None of this seems very Christian to me.
Americans have to consider this hypocrisy in evaluating their government. Christians should be appalled by the use of their religion to claim benevolent intent by the Bushites when their actions prove just the opposite. People of other beliefs can see Bush and his supporters cannot be trusted , should not be trusted andshould not be voted for.
Max Angst

A New Approach

A REVISED APPROACH


I’ve decided on a new format for this blog. Five days a week Max Angst will comment on the major issues of the day. My reason for doing this is that I am a member of The Greater Aurora Citizens for Peace and Justice (Gap J) in Aurora, Illinois. This group regularly demonstrates for important issues. I participated in a recent demonstration and found out my arthritis and lymphedema problems with my legs became aggravated by the standing and walking required. I no longer can particpate in these demonstrations. Yet I like the people in this organization and don't want to leave them. So, five days a week I will do a blog on an issue I believe Gap J would want comments on. The comments are mine alone, but they are dedicate to Gap J.