Friday, December 21, 2012

Relative morallity


With the US Presidential election in full swing, people suddenly start caring about the issues they have forgotten since the last election. I'm absolutely going mad over people who care about a political party more than they care about the actual issues at hand.


I think of all of the issues that get under my skin, the war issue gets me the most. I remember during the 2008 cycle the incredible number of bumper stickers calling for the end of the war, generally accompanied by a bumper sticker promoting Obama. I've heard so called liberals and progressives ranting against unjustly going into other countries and killing innocent people. I've heard to cries of war just being a way for select large corporations to get rich on the backs of the poor. I've heard the call for Bush and Cheney's heads on a platter.

Fast forward to 2012, these same people have taken their anti war bumper stickers off, but for many, the Obama stickers still remain. I hear ignorant and idiotic justifications for Obama continuing the Bush war policies. When he didn't pull the troops out of Iraq, where was the outrage? Oh I know, he gets credit now for pulling them out, but the truth is, that was actually something that Bush had already put into place, that Obama wanted to extend. When he increased the fighting in Afghanistan, where were the protests? When he invaded Syria, Libya and Yemen, justifications were made.

When the Patriot Act passed in the house and senate and was needing the signature of the President, Obama was so anxious to sign the damn thing, he used his magic pen to do so. When Bradley Manning exposed atrocities that where happening, Obama was quick to condemn him. Again, silence from the faithful. When OSB was "killed" in Pakistan, and his body immediately disposed, where was the questioning? Indefinite detention of citizens? Nothing. It was just revealed that Obama is continuing the secret war on Pakistan, but outside of Rachel Maddow, I haven't heard a word about it.

Of course, now that the election is upon us and our D team must win, let the justifications being. I saw a video showing Obama workers who just are willing ignorant of what has really happened.  At one point the lady interviewed said, "I'm not up on all the details, but I approve of how he's trying to get out of the wars." What? You are not up on any of the details and you approve of him continuing to killing innocent people? Really? Why, because he has a D behind his name?

I think the best I've heard in a while, came from a lady who has blogged about how immoral it is go into other countries, kill and exploit the people of those countries. I agree with this. I think it is reprehensible. However, in a email conversation with my wife, she justifies Obama continuing the war policies of Bush by saying the reason Obama cannot bring the troops home is because there are no jobs here.

So let me see if I get this. Its immoral to kill innocent people, in the name of national security, through military actions that benefit the profiteers, unless, of course, you need a job. Are you kidding me? Is this really the best we can do? First, killing innocent people is wrong. Period. No justification, it's wrong! I wish these people think that what we are doing is ok would spend 15 minutes thinking about how these people feel when someone comes and destroys their belongings and kills or maims the people they cared about. We get pissed off when you have some Christians taunting Muslems in Dearborn, Michigan and violence break out, but if violence happens to some "stupid, backwards, uneducated people" and a couple of reporters in a foreign land, well, who cares?

The reality is, people in the military have contracts for the amount of time they serve. We cannot just break these contracts, so we have to keep them employed. Since we must keep them employed and the only thing that is stopping Obama from killing innocent people is a lack of jobs, I have a solution. Its really not that brilliant, but I think it might just work. We have major infrastructure problem in this country. We have nearly 70,000 bridges in the country that needs repair. We have roads that need upkeep. How about we start bringing troops home, let them work on rebuilding our country, actually protect the homeland and stop killing innocent people. It would make our country safer, both from blowback and from failing infrastructure.

In some ways, it might be nice to see Romney as president. At least you'll have more Democrats upset about the wars again. Of course, I'm not seriously wanting Romney. Instead, I'd love to see Johnson or Stein in office. I believe one of them would actually do something about our occupations.
This blog was originally posted on RantBoxAlley