Columnist – John Sammon
This is where we Americans who have failed as a country start to pay the price. It’s pretty simple. If you let one war or two wars drag on long enough, there’s bound to be another trouble spot somewhere else. But we won’t have adequate power if a new war breaks out because we’re still locked in two other wars.

Equipment wears out. Soldiers wear out. Some of our soldiers are in their 19th deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan. We’re stretched to the max now.

What happens if Korea blows up?

We didn’t learn as a people from Watergate. We didn’t learn from Vietnam. There is only so much military power can accomplish. If you can’t win a decisive victory in a war that makes the other guy surrender and give up, then you have to settle it politically somehow and get out.

When Bush and Cheney lied us into war telling United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq to get out of the way that it was too late, even though the weapons inspectors hadn’t found any weapons of mass destruction. The American people went along with it.

When Bush and Cheney set up torture camps and threw out the Geneva Convention treatment of prisoners. The American people went along with it. Not all of them, but enough of them.

When the wars dragged on and our military ruling élite said things like “be Patient,” and “we’re making progress,” and pushing back “their influence.” The American people went along with it, year after year after year.

They didn’t protest at the White House by the millions. They didn’t engage in the kind of peaceful non-violent protest that gains attention. They just, went along.

   Vietnam Soldiers
Sooner or later, there’s bound to be another war break out somewhere. And we’re overcommitted in two endless wars now, a policy continued by Obama, who uses the same kind of tired statements that always lack specifics like, we’re making “progress,” making “influence,” making “gains.”

Korea is ready to blow.

Our trucks and planes and hardware to make war are worn out.

This is what happens when you don’t demand of your government that they either win a war in a reasonable amount of time, or settle it somehow politically.

We don’t demand accountability of our government. Korea is going to blow and we’re already overcommitted in two wars in neither of which we’ve won a military victory, but allowed to drag on forever.

This is the legacy of Bush. It will become that of Obama.

As long as the American people are like sheep and demand no specifics on how our Middle East wars are to be resolved, the president and the military will make vague statements and drag them on and on forever. In the meantime, a new conflict is brewing, probably Korea.

Our weak economy is struggling to recover. We don’t have the wherewithal for a third war.

Foolish Americans. You didn’t listen to Teddy Roosevelt, who said it’s the duty of every American to criticize their government, and especially members of their own political party. Americans have proven instead that the Watergate scheme and scandal were the wave of the future.

We didn’t learn.

The American people are not up to the challenge of Democracy.

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   Columnist – John Sammon
Okay I’ll confess. I have to admit I laughed, I’m delighted, and I feel a grim sense of amusement at the government’s horrified, ballistic-angry response to the leak of classified materials by Wikileaks. Government bureaucrats are threatening prosecution, screaming this and that. God only knows what they intend to do to get even with the perpetrators of the leaks.

Let’s be fair, okay?

How am I supposed to feel? Joe Average. That’s me. And proud of it.

I know they say it’s an attack on America, and that it endangers our security and operatives overseas, and I’m willing to listen to that. But it’s also time you listen to me, all you government hacks.

The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution that said “WE THE PEOPLE,” which logically excluded women, blacks, Indians, Mexican-Americans and even poor white men. It should have been “WE THE WELL-TO-DO WHITE MEN.”

Most of the Founders also kept slaves. We the People?

You lied to me about the Vietnam War with the Pentagon Papers.

Nixon lied to me he wasn’t a crook.

Reagan lied in the Iran-Contra scheme by testifying in court, “I can’t remember.”

Clinton lied about Monica.

Bush and Cheney lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Obama is breaking his word on withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

Why should I care that you’re angry about the American people finding out what you’ve been up to and doing in their name? You want a secret government, and you want to call it Democracy, and you want me to support it.

We had a military operation in Iraq called “Iraqi Freedom.” Freedom imposed at the point of a gun, installing a government the people there did not select. Even if we agree with the outcome, even if you like the war, can you with a straight face call that truly “freedom?”

Freedom, for who? In other words, when I want your opinion I’ll give it to ya.’

The myth likes to say that your vote on election day is very important. To a degree it is. You can vote for a bond issue for a library, for a local mayor’s race, even for governor or senator. But a large proportion of what goes on in this country is not influenced by your vote. At all.

For example, foreign policy is dictated by people you’ve never heard of, in secret. When they misbehave, you have no way of knowing it, but they get really angry if by some quirk you find out about it. Then they run to the courts and plead their case in the name of patriotism.

The World Bank meets in secret. Lobbyists and cartels and corporate technocrats and big banks and oil companies and all the rest continue to call the shots without the oversight of public scrutiny. The Lincoln Savings and Loan fiasco is another example. How ironic the bank was named after Abraham Lincoln, a man history has lauded for his honesty.

Government is like the tip of a figurative iceberg. Most of it is under the water and out of sight. Secretive people wouldn’t meet in secret if they didn’t have something to hide.

Since you guys like to be secretive, and get so angry when by some quirk the shoe is on the other foot, I’ll let you in on a little secret of my own. I’m secretly delighted by the leaks.

If somebody gets hurt because of information going out, I’m sorry. But in fairness, we’re all hurt from secret government at one time or another.

I have never been afraid of the truth. I don’t feel safer not knowing it.

All you government paper-shuffling secretive hacks out there in your windowless underground bunkers, you at least can appreciate honesty. You know what that is, right?

America is not really a Democracy. Or even a true Republic.

That’s no secret.

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   Columnist – John Sammon
Ever since time immemorial, one way to deflect domestic problems at home like unrest or a bad economy is to divert people’s attention by engaging in war. Caesar did it (not Chavez, but Julius), and so did Bush and Cheney. Obama may follow suit.

America must search out a small impoverished country so that it can invade that country and win a war, because we haven’t won in a long time. It’s like the Oakland Raiders. They used to win all the time, and now they don’t.

Think of it.

We lost in Vietnam, and Obama declared “No Victory” after eight years in Iraq. And Afghanistan isn’t looking particularly good. The outcome there is not at all certain. That’s a total of two (possibly) three wars AMERICAN HAS FAILED TO WIN, against tiny impoverished countries much smaller than we are. WE, THE SUPERPOWER.

We’ve also lost the War on Drugs. That’s three, possibly four if the Afghan insanity doesn’t work out.

What’s happening? We used to be undefeated.

Since we only go to war against tiny impoverished countries that lack a navy, an air force, and with ragged insurgents who don’t even have shoes on their feet, why can’t we win?

Think of it. We beat the British twice to found our own country and then we beat the Indians (Native Americans) whose country it originally was. Then we beat the Mexicans and took California and Arizona away from them. Then we beat the Spanish and took over their colony in the Philippines. Then we beat the German Krauts twice with the help of the rest of the world.

Things started to go wrong in Korea. We managed a tie there. Since then we’ve been losing.

Like the Raiders, I think maybe we need a new coach (president?) Maybe we should blame it on the fans, in this case the American people. We don’t dare attack China, our fascist protégée that we’re teaching to take over the world. Or North Korea. They could do us some damage too.

Iran? Probably not.

We need to find a country that’s small enough and a patsy that a war against them would be a cakewalk. Bush said Iraq would be a cakewalk (in private to Dick Cheney), but we know how that turned out.

What countries should we consider for invasion? They have to be Arab. Americans aren’t mad enough at Switzerland to justify an invasion there. Here is a partial list of possibilities:

Yemen — A known hang-out of terrorists. This poor, miserable wretched little wasteland is so pitiful that anything bad happening to them would be better than what they have now. If you assembled 50 Yemenis together they collectively couldn’t figure out how to row a lifeboat. We couldn’t lose here even if we tried. How many Yemenis does it take to plug in a light bulb? You know that one.

Oman — This tiny country curling around the lip of Arabia on the Arabian Sea could simultaneously be hit by American ground forces, naval and air as well as a World War II-style Normandy-type hit-the-beaches D-Day. Nothing would warm our hearts more than an imitation of the last good war (WW2).

Plus, American soldiers could have tee shirts that read “Oh Man!”

The United Arab Emirates — There is nothing united about this place. A conglomeration of ultra-rich tribal chieftains and poverty-stricken yokels, conquest of this country could give us ownership of the Persian Gulf. We could concoct a phony story like we did in Iraq that they had weapons of mass destruction and send in elite squads of Navy Seals and Marine snipers with all our stealth technology and kill a million of these Bedouin losers and who would care? Nobody did in Iraq. We could nation build gated condos there and call it Casa Del Tea Party Patriotic Dunes.

Qatar — All we have to do with this place is add a few letters and it’s named after our own U.S. quarter (quarter dollar). How American can you get? This place is so small, all they export are gnats. If we can’t win here, we can’t win anywhere.

There! I’ve given you options.

Copyright 2010 Sammonsays.

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   Columnist – John Sammon
This is the price you pay.

The country that can dominate the world like a modern Roman Empire. The country that is pursuing 10-year wars against two impoverished Third World countries whose inhabitants do not even have shoes.

The country that can send a space shuttle up every two months to glorify our mastery over the elements with gadgets, and in which exploration is now proceeding to exploitation and militarization (we fired a rocket bomb into the moon to see what would happen).

The country that waves the flag that we are the best, that God blesses us and no one else, from sea to shining sea. The home of the free and the land of the brave (implying that nobody else is).

The country that has attacked more countries and meddled in the internal affairs of more countries than any other country, always under the guise of righteousness. The country that killed a million Iraqis under the accusation of possessing false weapons of mass destruction, and the American people do not care, and the two war criminals who launched it, Bush and Cheney, are walking around free men.

The country in which arrogance and savings and loan rip-offs and crooked politicians and greed are destroying the entire system. The country that is the lead polluter in the world and is teaching its fascist ally China to be. A Washington ruled by corporate crooks and oil companies and Israeli lobbyists whom every time you criticize Israel running wild, you get called an anti-Semite and fired from your job.

ALL THIS, FROM A COUNTRY THAT FAILS TO FIX A SIMPLE LEAKING HOLE IN THE EARTH THAT IT CREATED.

The American people have not demanded alternative sources of fuel just like they have not demanded honesty and accountability and conscience from their own government. This is the price you pay. The Gulf of Mexico dead.

It is symbolic in a way.

The American people are only interested in the TV show American Idol. This is the price you pay.

The system feeds on apathy and greed. It is more important to impose our will militarily on small poor countries than it is to do something about the destruction of the earth. Because that takes commitment, and idealism, which are not money and power.

There might be some good that comes out of this mess. For 100 years the dead Gulf of Mexico will sit there and remind us every time we wave the flag and say that God blesses us and that we are better, America the Beautiful.

It will remind us of arrogance. It will remind us this is the price you pay.

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The “benevolent” United States, the almighty “spreader of democracy,” — for eight years, under the dictatorship of genocidal criminals — George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, used chemical weapons on Iraqis.

Reports indicate that “Napalm-Like White Phosphorus Bombs” were used extensively in Iraq during the Bush administration’s eight years of genocide — particularly during the attack on Fallujah.

And, the effects are being felt today as growing numbers of Iraqi children are suffering from severe birth defects. [ SEE VIDEO BELOW]

Democracy Now! aired an exclusive excerpt of “Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre,” in 2005, featuring interviews with U.S. soldiers, Iraqi doctors and international journalists on the U.S. attack on Fallujah. Produced by Italian state broadcaster RAI TV, the documentary charges U.S. warplanes illegally dropped white phosphorus incendiary bombs on civilian populations, burning the skin off Iraqi victims. One U.S. soldier charges this amounts to the U.S. using chemical weapons against the Iraqi people. [ READ MORE ]

Reference: Other U.S. War Crimes

1.   The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of
2.   Criminals Perverts: U.S Troops ‘Lynch’ Pregnant Afghan Women; Celebrate Their Kills in Iraq!
3.   Bush has perverted, distorted and tarnished America’s image beyond repair
4.   Why Dick Cheney Should Suffer Severely For a Prolonged Period of Time, Then DROP DEAD!
5.   Ed Shultz: ‘I would love to rip Dick Cheney’s heart out and kick it around and stuff it back in him’
6.   The Haditha Killings — U.S. Marines committed WAR CRIMES of unfathomable proportions!

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