The EXEGETIST: A Library Of Independent Political Thought. By: Jack H. Dawsey

Afghanistan: Is It America’s Waterloo?

 By: Jack Dawsey

Careful historians may record that neither President Ronald Regan, nor his ramped-up military spending of the 1980’s won the Cold War.  Instead, historians will likely note that a little known country in Central Asia, Afghanistan, bankrupt the mighty USSR. 

Afghanistan, unknown by many American school children until 9-11, is rich in heritage, albeit foreign to Western culture.  When the former USSR invaded Afghanistan, the rebels hunkered down and repelled the air and ground assault with a tenacious zeal.  The proud Afghans defended their ancient homeland.   

Today, many in the former USSR are reduced to poverty.  Some are without food while others are without basic shelter. Subsequent to their invasion of Afghanistan, the proud Soviets witnessed an economic decline they never envisioned.  In the opinion of this writer, the Soviet people had one basic problem: blind political allegiance.

They were blinded by their arrogance and misguided by their political leaders, and as a result, were robbed of their national treasure through a series of foolish military interventions.

While their political leaders boasted of invincibility (and got drunk on Vodka), the proud Soviet people were hoodwinked into a no-win war in Afghanistan.  Is America making the same mistake?  

Personally, I think the arrogance of the one mirrors the other.  Much like the former USSR, the American Congress is drunk.  The people too are drunk, but not on hard drink.  Their stupor is a mental mind-set that I call: “paralysis-analysis.” We are paralyzed by our news media, cable, radio talk, and TV psychobabble.  We are so connected to our IPOD’s and IPHONE’s that we have become oblivious of the real world.  While we eat, drink and be merry, our young men and women are sacrificing life and limb in a corrupt foreign government.  The words of Rudyard Kipling’s The Young British Soldier apply.  

“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains, An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.”

I ask, “Will Afghanistan be America’s Waterloo?”  I also ask, “If the War is truly legitimate, then to succeed our whole nation demands personal sacrifice and commitment.  If it takes a village to raise a child, (so some say), it takes a nation, committed, to win a war. America is not committed.  The ½ of the 1% of Americans currently in uniform cannot win this war, alone. Uncle Sam needs you too. The whole population must adorn a uniform, (figuratively speaking), and go to war -if the war is legitimate. 

Sacrifices may include such things as a special war tax, and or it may include the rationing of goods and services.  It may even demand reinstituting the military draft.  And doubtless, it requires a mind-set to secure our ports and borders.  Isn’t it foolish to wage a foreign war while neglecting our ports and borders?  It’s imperative that Americans change their priorities, (and their political leaders).

Moreover, if the security of Western civilization is at stake, (as republicans and democrats would have us believe), I asks, “Is America the only responsible nation, and must the American soldier bear the preponderance of the war alone?”

Where are the commitments of Europe and the Far East?  Shouldn’t they have a junk-yard dog in this fight?  They need to be fully vested.  As a starter may I suggest the 3-M Program: Manpower, Money, and Machine?

Up The Creek Without a Paddle 

 By: Jack Dawsey

For 2-years I have been publishing my editorials to the people of Sampson County in the Sampson Sun, and posting them on my web site: www.theexegetist.com

Thanks to Ms. Donna Bass, she has allowed me the space and liberty to write my opinions in her paper, without filter or requiring me to leave my mind hanging on a nail, as some editor’s demand. 

To you Sampsonians, I thank you for reading my articles and I thank you for the kind letters and emails you’ve sent.  By now you have noticed that most of my articles have been financial in scope and nature, always advocating your best interest. In this week’s editorial, I pull another political thread through that cloth.  But first, consider this.

The current propaganda coming out of America’s TV and cable news media-outlets makes Germany’s 1930’s Goebbels Propaganda Machine, second class.  Comparatively speaking, Goebbels was a lightweight.

To hear some in the media tell it, Obama is to blame for the BP oil disaster, the war, and all the government graft and corruption for the past 30-years, having reached its zenith during the Bush Administration.  Some believe, jokingly speaking, that Obama is responsible for the ingrown toe-tails of the elderly living in local nursing homes. 

Instead of shedding light, (conservative and liberal media) tend to fogify and cloud the issue.  For example, have you noticed that Congress has held numerous financial hearings to determine the cause that bankrupt this great nation, and found nothing?   Isn’t it amazing?  Where are the investigative reporters?  Where are the reporters like the Watergate era, when they nailed President Nixon and his cronies to the barn door in shame?  Where were the investigative reporters when Wall Street and our banks lost $trillions of your money in fantasy loans while Congress was asleep at the switch?

After losing $trillions, the investment bankers petitioned Congress and demanded the taxpayer replace their losses, and Congress obliged.  They even had the audacity to ask for a surcharge to your credit card, and Congress obliged. 

By the way, have you ever heard a Congressman ask one of the Wall Street CEO’s or an insurance investment bankster what happen to all of their depositor’s money?  Have you heard a Congressman ask, “Where did the money go?”  Have you heard them ask, “You mean to tell me you didn’t know the money was disappearing from your bank, and if you didn’t know, aren’t you guilty of criminal negligence?” 

I do believe that Obama when he was a U.S. Senator is responsible, in part, for helping Congress to legalize Credit Default Swaps.  In that respect, his vote(s) gave the investment bankers and insurance companies a legal way to steal Reserves so that no criminal charges could be brought against them by plaintiffs.

In all the injustice(s) done to the taxpayer, 2000  – 2008, there was silence.  There was silence until the Tea Party rallied in 2009 and railed against Obama which makes their motive, suspicious.  Their militancy and anger scares me more than the Wall Street banksters.

Other than the militant tea-baggers and noise makers on Faux News, I think most people do care.  In my opinion, they are concerned and frightened, but when they look for leadership, they find none from their republican and democrat representatives.  It seems that our politicians have become a joke, as evidenced by the mindless minions in power that inhabit federal and state government.

And have you noticed the liberal media’s sudden turn against Obama now that BP has a hole in the ocean floor that is destroying our eco-system?  Could it be they smell defeat in November and want to cut their losses now to save face?

And finally I ask, do you suppose the American people will revert back and reelect the same old crowd that first wrecked our economy by driving it into the ditch during the Bush years?   I don’t know, but when choices for leadership are twiddle-de or twiddle-dumb, that’s like being “up the creek” without a paddle.  If you ask me our canoe has sprung a leak and we are sinking into the mire.  Who is going to bail us out when we lose everything?