"An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind..."
Ghandi once said that, and he was pretty much right. That statement also can be accurately used to describe the United States's position in the world in this present harsh climate of fear and retribution. And although I would really like to blame it all on W. and pretend none of this would have happened if only Al Gore, our truly elected president, had been allowed to take his rightful office, I can't really delude myself that much. Oh, we may not have killed thousands of innocent civilians in Afghanastan under Gore, or waged a pointless and destructive war in Iraq because of a bunch of non-existant weapons of mass destruction (referred to as WOMS from here on), but we'd still have bombed innocent people and lost our jobs just the same. Not that Al Gore is a bad guy, in fact I'm sure he's a much better guy than W. (he can read, anyway), but let's face it--the democrats of recent years have begun to greatly resemble the Republicans, and looking at Clinton's rap sheet, for instance, its difficult to tell the difference sometimes:
Here's a list from Michael Moore's book, Stupid White Men, of things Clinton, who we all thought was ultra-liberal with his saxaphone playing, pot smoking, draft dodging hippy ways, did while he was President:
- Signed a bill providing for federal funds to be given to "faith based" organizations
- Expanded the number of federal crimes for which the death penalty may given, for a total of 60
- Signed a bill outlawing gay marriages
- Took out ads on Christian radio stations explaining his opposition to any form of legal same sex coupling
- Kicked 10 million people off welfare, out of only 14 million total recipients
- Promised states "bonus funds" if they could reduce their numbers of welfare recipients, and made it easier to get the funds by no longer requiring states to help ex-recipients find jobs
- Introduced a plan barring any assistance to teenage parents in they drop out of school or leave their parents' homes
- Signed an order prohibiting any US funds going to any country to be used in helping women secure abortions
- Refused to sign an International Land Mine Treaty already signed by 137 nations--in company with Iraq, Libya, and North Korea.
- Opened the Natural Petroleum Reserve in Alaska
- Became the first President since Richard Nixon not to force auto makers to improve their mileage per gallon
Although I really liked Bill, and I think our country was safer in his hands than it is in W's, that's mostly because W is a total idiot who can barely pronounce the word "terror" without making me think of Scarlett screeching for Mammy to tighten her corsett. I don't think W is any more inherently evil than Bill or Al, but let's face it, Bill and Al are smart guys who are less eager for things like making imperialist war on countries then leaving them to rot in anarchy while the UN attempts to keep peace. Speaking of Afghanistan and September 11th, let's look at another list that may shed some light on the situation:
The Hypocritical War on Tara-ism
- School of the Americas: a facility at Ft. Benning, GA, funded by the US government, which basically trains people to be terrorists against their own people. Its responsible for the training of such people as Roberto D'Aubuisson, the leader of El Salvador's death squads; the men who killed Archbishop Oscar Romero; and 19 of the 26 soldiers who murdered the Jesuit priests in 1989. According to Bush's war against terrorism, the US should be going after itself for funding and training terrorists.
- During the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the US set up schools in Pakistan to train resistance fighters. These schools later became the Taliban, which gave Osama bin Laden sanctuary after seizing control of Afghanistan in 1996.
- Osama bin Laden originally formed Al-Qaeda as a resitance to the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan--in essence the Cold War created the largest terrorist network in existence.
- 3,044 people died in the September 11 attacks, including the 19 hijackers. An estimated 3,400 Afghan civilians died during the subsequent bombings by the US. Around 7,000 Iraqi civilians were killed by US troops during Operation Iraqi "Freedom."
- 282 American soldiers have died in Iraq, roughly half of those deaths occuring after Bush officially ended the war in May.
- W is looking to North Korea now, only he has to tread carefully with the "Axis of Evil"--North Korea has the bomb. NK has agreed to disarm if the U.S. agrees on a security treaty, but Bush is unwilling to relinquish his ability to invade North Korea if he gets bored searching for Saddam Hussein. After all, the Korean War never officially ended.
So, I'm showing you a lot of reasons I think our country is crap right now. The domestic policies of our past presidents and current unelected regime have allowed for the highest unemployment rate in nearly a decade, 42 million Americans without health insurance, and the nation's public schools forced to supplement federal funding with corporate sponsership. They've allowed for 20% of this nation's children to live below the poverty line. They've allowed for the town of Anniston, Alabama, in which I had the doubtable pleasure of living for 6 weeks, to become the most polluted town in the world per capita due to the 500,000 tons of PCBs buried there by a company now calling itself "Solutia"--all with the government's knowledge! People in Anniston have an average lifespan of 10 years shorter than that of the average American, and have to wear face masks to mow their lawns, or risk breathing in PCBs from the contaminated ground. In Anniston there are ads on the radio advising you what to do in case of a chemical spill emergency, because the government has also been holding chemical weapons nearby which it needs to incinerate because their containers are leaking. Anniston proves that the government cares more about its corporate sponsers and military interests than it does in the welfare and safety of its own people--and Anniston is revolting by sueing Solutia and the EPA. I propose that the rest of us revolt, too. John Locke, upon whose Two Treatises our constitution was based, tells us that a government may be overturned and replaced when it is no longer serving the interests of the people. Well, the people didn't elect this government, and it certainly isn't serving our interests by panhandling to its corporate sponsers. If you want to read more about our current regime and the problems we're facing, go to Michael Moore's website www.michaelmoore.com. Damn the Man! Save the empire!
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