Read between the lines...

I recently got a comment encouraging me to get off the 'hatter bandwagon' (I'm assuming the comment was supposed to read, "hater") after I made some disparaging remarks about the negative image of the average American, worldwide. At first, I laughed, because the comment couldn't have been serious. Could it? I mean, just because I point out that a couple of rednecks posting racist comments on an Arab news website is BOUND to make people think Americans are a bunch of jerks, doesn't mean I hate my country.

But, just in case there's any lingering doubt, I want to set the record straight. I've lived overseas...not just visited as a tourist, I mean LIVED, been in the country, shopped at the grocery stores, bought new shoes because I'd been there so long--lived there. As fantastic an experience as it was, I wouldn't give up America for it...not even if you paid me. Flawed as the American system may be, I prefer it. The problem is, people keep trying to make the American system look like something else.

Big businesses and lobbyists are trying to make it, with some degree of success, their own private legal bodyguard. Some liberals are trying to turn it into a clone of governments in other parts of the world. Some conservatives are trying to turn it into a theocracy. Some commentators are trying to make it the scapegoat for every issue that goes wrong in the world.

I love my country, dammit, and always will. Love it enough that when I think it's going in a bad direction, I'm going to speak up and say so. Love it enough that if I was called upon to do it, I would take up arms and fight to protect it. And I resent it when anyone casts aspersions at my love for my country...anyone from the President trying to chastise me (not individually, of course, but lumping me in with the group) for questioning his policies, all the way down to the guy who left the comment on my post, because he didn't read what I said, he read what he thought I was saying.

That being said, I've decided to start posting my list of MY POLITICAL VIEWS--

I BELIEVE that the current administration is no more (and no less) corrupt than any other administration we've had in the last forty years. I just believe they have been incredibly inept in their corruption. That's why everyone is hearing about it now.

I BELIEVE that the war in Iraq was not justified, under the guidelines originally stated. But I also believe that war in Iraq was inevitable. Saddam Hussein would have kept thumbing his nose at the UN and rattling his sheet-metal saber until he actually did have something that would be a threat, and then we would have had to do it anyway. But I still don't appreciate being misled, regardless of whether it was intentional on the part of the administration, or unintentional, on the part of the intelligence community.

I BELIEVE that if politicians want to get us into wars, then they should get the hell out of the way and let the generals figure out how to fight them. That's what they're paid to do. That's why they become generals in the first place. If there is one lesson we SHOULD have learned from Vietnam, and forgot going into Iraq, it was that any time you start letting the politicians dictate how the war is going to be fought, you're going to get hosed. I also believe that politicians and generals should return to the Greek tradition of leading from the front ranks. I think we'd have a helluva lot less war in the world that way.

I BELIEVE that, until the United Nations is willing to back up their mandates with REAL military force, the world at large is going to continue to laugh up their figurative sleeves whenever 'sanctions' are threatened. Iraq made money, hand over fist, while under 'sanctions' (granted, it all went straight into Saddam's pocket...but it went into the country). Obviously, Saddam didn't take them seriously. Neither did all the corporations who took kickbacks. And don't get me started on the governments that were supposed to be regulating said companies.

I BELIEVE, to quote Mr. Spock, that the function of all diplomats is to extend any crisis indefinitely. Everyone keeps talking about diplomatic solutions to so many of the world's problems. Well, we've been trying those 'diplomatic' solutions for a couple of centuries, and they haven't been working.

I BELIEVE that no matter whether or not the U.S. withdraws its troops from all over the world and minds its own business, trouble is going to find us. We were minding our own business when Germany sank a passenger liner and brought us into WWI. We were minding our own business when Japan decided to pre-emptively attack us and draw us into WWII (Okay, that one could be argued...we WERE supplying the British...it was good for the economy. If you're going to shoot someone for being a good businessman, you better start packing a lot of ammo.) The only time Isolationism works to avoid political upheaval is when you've got nothing worth taking in the first place.

I BELIEVE that Congress and the President could resolve the budget deficit in very short order, if they weren't such greedy bastards. Yeah, it's a demanding job...but it's only part of the year, in Congress--and I think the President's pay scale should be modeled after profit-sharing...if the economy is good, he'll get a hefty paycheck. If it sucks, he won't get diddly squat. In fact, I think all politicians should be paid that way...it'd teach them to keep their mind on the greater good...the city, the state, the nation...instead of how to keep lining their already bulging pockets. (And you thought they hated the flat-rate tax!!!)

Yeah, there's more...but I've got to plan out how to phrase it...or I've already said it (almost all politicians are inherently corrupt, anyone who WANTS to be President should be disqualified for the job, stuff like that...) This is good for a start. Pass the word!