The sad part is - with what is at stake and if what is possible ever happens
End of quote
Ya know, if you go looking for enemies, you most surely will find them....make one or two up and go around beating your chest, more will come out of the woodwork than you at first imagined.
What's pertinent here is that the US has the most powerful, best equipped and most mobile military machine on the face of the earth... every nation on earth knows it, including Russia and China, and not one of them has the bottle or means to declare war/launch a serious attack on US soil. Therefore, given the next two most powerful nations on earth haven't had the balls to attack the US, even at the height of the Cold War, there are no serious contenders who could bring the US to its knees militarily
So, now that we've established that the US has no militarily capable enemies, well none that has a hope in hell's chance of launching a successful attack, tell me/us, where in the world are these 'threats' that require military intervention on other's home soil?
Iraq was never a serious contender even with the best Saddam had to offer....being the actual invasion (without the most awesome firepower at the US disposal) was all over in under a month. So in essence,given its depleted abilities, Iraq was technically not an enemy of the US at the time of the invasion. In truth, it was not a humanitarian or moral cause, but an excuse to do some chest beating and flex some military muscles.
Even Iran is not a serious contender, and there is no way on earth it could launch an attack on US soil, given its geographical position and limited military hardware. That Ahmadi what's 'is name is little more than a fly in the ointment at this point in time and is chest beating just like the US does...the difference being that he can NOT back it up with anything of substance. More it's that Ahmadinejad is hoping the Islamic world will unite behind him, which is unlikely because other Arab leaders fear, as others do, such a move would spark WWIII.
So, Iran is dabbling in nuclear power, but reliable sources say it is some way away from manufacturing a nuclear bomb. Yeah, orright, Ahmadinejad is a provocative little bastard, but at this time there is no legitimate excuse to invade Iran...NONE. However, Iran's chest beating and turning its back on the USD to convert to Euros in its oil dealings, will be all the excuse/reason that's needed.
Seems to me, the US' economic priorities and management should/could have been better. Instead of the its economy riding on the back of an over-powered military machine, it could have been based on the work ethic/non-military industrial growth example being set by Japan. Yeah, the US might think it has been doing quite nicely out of its war machine, arms sales and reparations, etc, but in reality it is false profit because ultimately there are no winners/profits in war...it's ashes to ashes, dust to dust because there's no substance or permanency to build an economy on.
Fact is, US interests would be better served looking for real friends than enemies.... and that means friends who share mutual interests and goals of a peaceful nature, not reluctant allies who are too damned scared not to comply.
I fully expect to get flamed, ridiculed and condemned here, but quite frankly, I don't give a stuff. It'll be another case of shooting the messenger, instead of openening one's eyes to try addressing the real issues. At the end of the day, it's no skin off my nose if you're in a perpetual state of war readiness/constantly looking over your shoulders for an politically engineered/imagined enemy.
Anyhow, I've bumped my gums long enough, both here and in the 'Bush is Bad' thread.... and now I'm done.
Edit @ Jafo re: Howard/Bush...well said, mate, very bloody well said...now I'm done.
WinCustomize Forums
I believe that he hung around longer than Menzies. Lucky country? Australian politics have always been in a mess. I left Australia in '89, a period of one of the worst economy crashes......never came back.