Gaddafi. Ha, is that how you spell his name? I was trying to figure it out, went to google and saw 3 different options and just went with my first thought. I have a feeling you're right about that though.
And yeah Mark, I figured that you and I have been talking about politics on this board for long enough that you would know I wasn't insulting you with that. I just still find the amount of unjustified hype surrounding Obama when he was elected to be amazing. I understand he was a Senator from Illinois and thats all the more reason for you guys to get hyped up. But still.... You know what I'm saying without me explaining it.
I also agree that Rahm is probably your best mainstream option. I have no idea what kind of 3rd party candidates you guys have running for Mayor. But from a mainstream viewpoint he probably is your best option. Mainly because Chicago politics are known for just being straight dirty ( its not called the windy city because of the wind after all ) And he probably has the grit, and ultimately the reputation to protect, to keep things in order. Plus from what I can tell he really knows a lot about the city, what it's like to live there, and seems like he might maybe care at least a little bit. ( I hope I didn't just give him too much credit )
But no, unfortunately I do not think that we will stay out of these revolutions (ill share a personal story to confirm why in a sec). For some reason, Americans think that we have to be a part of everything. We have some people saying it because of what they have to profit from it. Then others saying it because they have been led to believe ( probably by those who have something to profit ) that it's our responsibility as the world superpower. Which is total bull shit. As the word superpower we have no responsibility to kill Iraqi and Afghan children to violently enforce our view of government. We have no right, or responsibility to empower leaders who will do as we wish and let us gain off the backs of their citizens. We definitely have no right to influence their "democracy" with force or by using U.S. tax payers dollars. It's absurd to believe so too (if you really understand what a free society is anyways )
When I think about recent U.S. foreign policy I think about some of the speeches I have heard/read from Bobby Kennedy talking about a compassionate revolution and how he wanted America to be known as a Compassionate nation. I also think about the words of the more recent Ron Paul who talks about standing up for what is right without physically intervening in other countries affairs. In essence I think their messages are very similar. One ran for president as a Democrat, the other as a Republican. But just as intelligent human beings they realized this is an issue that transcends right and left.
But see, neither of them have anything to gain from War/violence. This is very simply why Bobby was a assassinated and why Ron was black balled by the media. The people who do have something to gain, have a lot of money and a lot of incentives to make sure they are allowed to do as they please. And the will of the American people is very pliable......anyways
My personal story.
Very recently the Marine Corps got a new Commandant ( General Amos ). He visited the base I am stationed at ( MCAGCC 29 Palms, CA. ) And wanted to speak to a small group of the Marines who just returned from Afghanistan. Marines consider their Corpsmen to be one and the same as them, so they also asked that I show up at this small meeting with the Commandant to represent the Sailors who deployed with the Marines recently.
So, I'm in this small chapel listening to the New Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps spout out their usual rhetoric about how awesome it is to be a Marine and what not. Then General Amos started speaking about this document that he wrote which pretty much outlines his view of what the U.S. Marine Corps will look like, and be doing, for the next 20 years.
Long story short. He said we aren't leaving Afghanistan any time soon. We will more than likely have conflicts in other Middle Eastern nations. And more interestingly, that he is certain that the Marine Crops will be deployed for combat operations in the horn of Africa. ( we are already there btw, just not engaging in combat )
I very quickly became furious at this thought. We used to be a nation that did everything we could to avoid conflict ( we stayed out of the French revolution, the American public wanted nothing to do with WW1 or WW2 until they felt forced to participate.....) Now we are looking for violence to participate in. We are actively seeking conflict. Predicting where we can go be violent next before it is even close to materializing or being necessary. I was getting so angry that I started to have to do some breathing techniques to calm down. I had a thought, that I should stand up during question and answer time and ask him a simple question.
See you have to understand that at this time I was only home for maybe a month from a 12 month deployment to Afghanistan. During my time there I saw a large number of dead/wounded/mutilated Marines. I also lost a friend who I consider to be just one of the most amazing human beings that I have ever or probably will ever meet. So, I'm a little sensitive to the human cost of war. Those dead faces were still very fresh in my head. And for a while it was my responsibility to place their bodies in the body bags and drape the flags over them. So I had those memories fresh too.
The question I wanted to ask, but confess that I didn't have the courage to; Was something to the effect of "Sir, can you go ahead and take a look around this room. Can you please point out exactly which Marines in this room that you are willing to sacrifice, and see dead in order to participate in these conflicts, which are not yet conflicts? Can you just point out which Marines are in this room that you are OK with telling their families that their Father or Husband wont be coming home? Which Marines you don't mind seeing losing a head? Or maybe just them losing both legs?..................
you get the point of where I wanted to go with my question. But I pussed out because everyone knows that questions are supposed to be screened and I wold catch a world of shit for it and I just didn't feel I could even get the words out to get my point across.
My friends, who were in the room with me, and that I talked to later; understood though. And that might be the more important take away. I think this coming generation that will be taking more and more power and influence in our society soon, has really learned a lesson living through Bush and these two wars. Vietnam should have been this lesson, and we learned it to a point. But once they changed the play book from "communism" into "terrorist" that lesson was kind of forgotten. I just hope we do a better job.
But in the mean time, that was just a long way of saying that no. In no way do I think we will stay out of any kind of conflict in the Middle East any time soon.
