What if…?
I have a few questions for my Friends.
- What if we wake up one day and realize that the terrorist threat is a predictable consequence of our meddling in the affairs of others?
- What if propping up repressive regimes in the Middle East endangers both the United States and Israel?
- What if occupying countries like Iraq and Afghanistan - and bombing Pakistan - is directly related to the hatred directed toward us and has nothing to do with being free and prosperous?
- What if someday it dawns on us that losing over 5,000 American military personnel in the Middle East since 9/11 is not a fair trade-off for the loss of nearly 3,000 American citizens, no matter how many Iraqi, Pakistani, and Afghan people are killed or displaced?
- What if we finally decide that torture, even if called enhanced interrogation techniques, is self-destructive and produces no useful information - and that contracting it out to a third world nation is just as evil?
- What if it is finally realized that war and military spending is always destructive to the economy?
- What if all wartime spending is paid for through the deceitful and evil process of inflating and borrowing?
- What if we finally see that wartime conditions always undermine personal liberty?
- What if conservatives, who preach small government, wake up and realize that our interventionist foreign policy provides the greatest incentive to expand the government?
- What if conservatives understood once again that their only logical position is to reject military intervention and managing an empire throughout the world?
- What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests?
- What if we as a nation came to realize that the quest for empire eventually destroys all great nations?
- What if Obama has no intention of leaving Iraq?
- What if a military draft is being planned for the wars that will spread if our foreign policy is not changed?
- What if the American people learn the truth: that our foreign policy has nothing to do with national security and that it never changes from one administration to the next?
- What if war and preparation for war is a racket serving the special interests?
- What if President Obama is completely wrong about Afghanistan and it turns out worse than Iraq and Vietnam put together?
- What if Christianity actually teaches peace and not preventive wars of aggression?
- What if diplomacy is found to be superior to bombs and bribes in protecting America?
- What happens if my concerns are completely unfounded - nothing!
- What happens if my concerns are justified and ignored - nothing good!
Adapted (and slightly reformatted) from a speech given on the floor of the house of representatives by the congressman from Texas Rep. Paul (I have changed the first line)
Questions that need to be asked, and so I shall repeat them here
an economy based on principles?
I sure would love it if our country would start making decisions based on principles.
I do know that because we made some pretty bad decisions in the past, that if we now started to live up to those principles that we would have to deal with the consequences and that these might not be easy. But we're suffering as it is from those lies and deceptions. Might as well go all out and just start doing it right. I guess that's what they call a revolution.
But now we're just trying to make a bad problem go away by shifting the focus.
And yes I'm talking mainly about what's on everyone's mind... the state of the economy. But I certainly wouldn't limit it to that.
An economist seems to be worried about making sure the money doesn't disapear and how to make more. Mix that with a politician who is mostly concerned about happy people and votes in the short term. A short term fix as a placebo for the masses. Get them a job and some money to get them through this crisis and leave bigger issues for the age to come.
What's another 10 trillion in debt for the country? Why not support failed and decaying business practices... as long as they're giving jobs to my voters.
Why try real honest and principled solutions when they're gonna be so hard and probably unpopular.
It's sad really.
What do you stand for?
Are you alright with standing behind a principle of doubling the debt?
Are you alright with babying people for now to make them happy?
Are you alright with sacrificing an economy based on sound and responsible money for not having to deal with the real consequences of our system and way of life economically?
This isn't an Obama vs Bush thing... this isn't Reps vs Dems... they both support this system, just in slightly different ways. They have their differences but neither is making the changes. The republicans are yelling about it now, but they didn't do their job when they were there and in fact it's their greed that caused a lot of this. And now the democrats are screwing things up... just in a different way. They both suck! They suck and we suck for letting them screw up our country.
Are you alright with this? Or do you just want to see Obama and friends patch it and pretend that the foundation isn't crumbling.
If he paints the outside of the house all rosy colored are you still ready to move back in... or will you understand that it's structurely unsafe?
So what are the economic principles we want to abide by?
Shall we pick... those that make us the most money? Or is there something above that?
