Do You Really Want Another War?

Let's think clearly about this. Do we really want to get into another war in another Middle Eastern country? Do we really want to take on another regime that supposedly poses some great threat to our safety? Do we want to go down this road again?

Do we have the money to go and invade another country? Have we been cutting spending and reducing our debt? Is our economy improving? Are employers hiring? Is our standard of living rising? Do we have the financial resources to topple and install a new regime?

Have we studied and do we know the enemy? Do we know what their people are like? Do we know generally how they feel about their government? Do we know their religion? Are they Sunni or Shiite? What is the difference between a Sunni or Shiite? How does the Iranian government feel about the new Iraqi or new Afghani government? Do they support Hamas, Hezbollah, or neither?

As to the actual threat, do we know that they are building a bomb? What type of bomb are they building? Where are they building it? Do they have the resources to actually pull it off? Are they even enriching uranium for weapons? Are they allowed to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes? How does the Ayatollah feel about acquiring nuclear weapons? Do the people of Iran like the idea of their government acquiring weapons?

Before we even begin a hot war, how would we asses our cold war? How effective has our intelligence been recently? How well do they know the area of Iran? What effect have our sanctions had? Have they crippled the government? What do the people of Iran think about our sanctions? What do they think about the US national government? What do they think about American people?

Have we remembered one of the most famous quotes from Sun Tzu's Art of War, "It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."?

And this is just a short list of question. I would hope that at the very least we would be able to answer these questions before we push for war with Iran. I think that most people who are agitating for it cannot answer even half of these. And if history teaches us anything, it is that this does not matter, and we will invade anyway and ignore the consequences of our actions. Iraq was only 10 years ago. Do we really want to do what seems to be almost the exact same thing?

The Slow Return Back, Part 1

Yes, after quite a long hiatus, I feel as though I have too much to say to keep this mouthpiece of mine muted. Much has been going on in the world: a presidential election, reform in Europe, tensions in the Middle East, and the continuing monetary fiasco, among other things.

I have been keeping up with the news, and frankly the things that I have begun to notice are horrifying me. I have many things with which I am taking issue, and I will deal will them in due time. However, I thought that I would touch upon what seems to be at least somewhat related to all of the issues: the triumph of rhetoric over reason.

What I mean by this is quite simple, but in a way, quite sinister. For probably decades if not longer, people have discussed the bias of the media. They have shown evidence of some issues, but they are mostly partisan ones. While this is important and should not be ignored, I feel that there is a much larger problem that is much more sinister. Essentially, the media (and our politicians!) dictates to us the bounds of discussion. Let me list a few examples.

The income tax is probably the most blatant example of the issue. The debate with which we are presented is whether we should raise or lower taxes. This works for both income and capital gains taxes. Funny, why do we never hear the argument raised by those who feel that this country should have no income tax? Frank Chodorov made the point earlier in the century that essentially it was the income tax which allowed the federal government to become the behemoth that it is. Without that, we would have the same government that we had during the Gilded Age. Isn't it interesting that this is just seen as laughably absurd? After all, how would the government function without an income tax, they would say. It it just too extreme for rational discussion. Funny, the federal government functioned quite nicely before the income tax, and that system allowed the United States to rise to prominence. Now it is laughably impossible?

The second issue is war with Iran. This has been a particularly hot issue lately, and it is understandable. Discussion of war and nuclear bombs will easily pique the interest of those worried of the Islamist menace. But how much of a menace is it? Is it too extreme to discuss the possibility of our military actions raising up anti-American sentiment? Is it too extreme to say that our debt is far too large to be going into more wars? Is it too extreme to discuss the practicality of a war for peace that kills 100,000 people and displaces millions (I'm looking at you Iraq)? Why are we not allowed to even discuss these things? Are these not valid points?

One issue particularly close to me concerns the election of Ron Paul. From the start we have all heard that Ron Paul is never going to be elected. After all, he is too old, too extreme, and too crazy. Funny, whenever somebody mentions that he is unelectable, they never discuss why exactly that is. Is it his crazy idea that we should be concerned about our debt? Is it his crazy idea that we should not be so trusting of the rising police state (if he's crazy about this, then so were our forefathers)? Is it crazy that we should understand our enemy before we attack them? Is it crazy to vote against unbalanced budgets? Ultimately, the opposition to Ron Paul relies on flash and not substance. What he says makes sense, but just because he is not great at oration he gets dismissed easily. This is nonsense. Ron Paul deserves a look, especially among conservatives who claim to be concerned about our national debt and unfunded liabilities since he is the only candidate that has a plan that would actually lower that debt.

The most entrenched issue revolves around welfare. We all hear about how welfare spending is out of control or how social security is broke. We hear all kinds of proposals to fix it or given the programs back to the states (even this is deemed as too extreme!). When was the last time that any of us heard about just getting rid of these programs? Oh no! Why, if we did that, we would be branded haters of the old and sick, Social Darwinists, or any other kind of dismissive label that is placed on real fiscal conservatives. Hmm, that's funny, how did the poor, old, and sick survive before welfare spending? Did all of the old people die of starvation before social security? Were people dying because of access to care before medicare? Of course not! But can we ever discuss it rationally? Of course not. We're not allowed to.

If this sounded like a rant, it was intended to be. The state of politics in this nation is despicable. We no longer judge proposals on their ultimate conclusions, but rather on superficialities. This is nonsense. If we are ever going to have significant change in this country, we must demand a real discussion, not the pandering that is doused upon us daily. If you want to escape this cespool or pseudo-intellectual discussion, I would suggest visiting sites that actually offer opposing viewpoints. Recently, I've been visiting antiwar.com, rt.com, al-Jazeera, lewrockwell.com, and others. Do I agree with everything on these sites? Of course not. However, they actually present another viewpoint. Read them with a grain of salt, but read them, and don't just rely in big media. They've lied to us before and will again. Be bold, search for the truth, let propaganda not your source of information be.