This seems to be something most of us agree on. Why cannot we exercise our collective will to insist that our politicians not engage in illegal wars, & get some restraint on the use of our military. IMO, the military should ONLY be used to resist a direct threat. We should not sub-contract our military out, making foreign policy & deals using our military as a bargaining chip. We should not make 'preemptive strikes'. We need to make it a lot harder for presidents to engage our military.. at the very least a majority of congress should have to approve, & perhaps some laws regulating how & why they use it.
I have gotten a lot of this view from Ron Paul. I'm not a libertarian, nor do i support Paul, but in this i think he is right. The truth of this should strike a chord will all voters, & we should start insisting that our politicians make policy reflecting our values regarding war & the use of military might.
I don't think we have to throw up our hands in despair, bemoaning how corrupt the govt is, & how the military industrial complex does whatever they want. No, we the people can make a difference. Even if we have different views about the level of govt we want, we can agree that we no longer want our military used for shady business deals & foreign trade agreements. Obviously, we can't afford it, so fiscal conservatives should be on board with this, too.
I know this will take some time.. cutting back bases, foreign aid, etc, so we should get started. I don't see any downside for our politicians, except those in the pocket of the military industrial complex .. & if they vote against them, they can get more popular support. I think this is a pretty big deal, too.. one of THE most important roles of govt.. protecting the nation. They might distract us with their quibbling about gays or welfare, but this is one area we should call them to account.
"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe."
Abraham Lincoln
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
Abraham Lincoln
When the largest industry in the world is no longer War, I will accept Darwin's theory of Evolution.
Dale S. Mugford
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