Scrambler

[akismarain]

So when will this country stop doing shit overseas that requires the rest of the homeland to stay and desperately attempt to hold together the status quo? We can't move forward with anything because this war keeps dragging us back economically. Privately and as a nation. The percentage of the budget dedicated to this stupid war grows every year and

Comments

[james_m_83]

The problem (as I'm sure you're well aware) is that the US is not prepared to leave Iraq until there is 'stability in the region'; and neighbouring states (Syria & Iran) will do everything they can to prevent stability because they know full well that they are next on the list. The longer it takes to get US troops out of Iraq, the less likely the US will be able to afford to invade Iran/Syria in terms of finance and support.

The US can't pull out before the area is stable because they went in without the sanction of the UN, who (whilst doing absolutely nothing at the time) will give the US a big slap if they pulled out their troops and leave Iraq in chaos. Of course chaos in the middle east is nothing new, they've been killing each other for thousands of years.

How does your country get run by such wankers?

[akismarain]

Because everyone is too busy eating Cheetos and watching Must See TV to bother looking in depth at any of the issues. It doesn't take much, but it does take some amount of investigation to figure out what's going on... most people here can't even muster that. Then there's also the whole ignorant-because-I'm-religious thing. I think some people in this country believe that going to church is their only duty in life and they should just leave the governing to others. Perhaps, actually, it's a self-image thing; everyone "important" in this country is so glamorized, so beautified, and world-reknown, much more so than in other countries, so the national self-esteem as a whole seems to me to be pretty damn low. Everyone's too busy idolizing Justin Timberlake to realize that they are just as "cool" as him, you know? So I think part of it is also that people just don't feel that they are smart enough to make the right decisions, and as a result, they just don't bother because thinking makes them feel bad.

I could go on.

[lightvortex]

Most people don't even want us in Iraq anymore, but we're still there. Of course, perhaps we wouldn't be if not as many people had voted for Bush in the first place. And part of it is the nature of politics (yeah, I know I'm not articulating that well). I went to the Mass. Peace Action annual meeting last Saturday, and someone was referring to people in the Democratic leadership saying that they need the war in order to get elected in 2008. So they know that people elected them largely because they're disgusted with the war (and, yeah, many people who are now disgusted with the war initially supported it), but apparently they feel like they need the war to continue for a while so that they can accomplish other things that they want4 to accomplish. The ends justify the means. It seems so typical of politics--people are afraid to actually represent their constituents. So, if what she was saying is accurate, they want to posture but not actually do anything to make the war stop

[akismarain]

I know that I don't want the war, but I just get cynical and depressed about it and don't know what to do, other than going to the march and callingi my Rep and Senators, which may or may not do any good. *sigh*And therein lies the problem. This war isn't the problem. This administration isn't even really the problem, though it does and has exacerbated the problem to a nauseating extent. The problem is that this system is no longer working. It wasn't designed in this global world and it isn't working as such