Oh The Stress Of It All – Op Ed

November 1, 2008

tags: American President, Barack Obama, Bush, changing planet, consequences, economy, Elections, FDA, George Bush, Great Depression, Iran, John McCain, military industrial complex, Politics, preemptive strike, Stress, War Cost

by bosskitty

Can November 5, 2008 come and go fast enough? Gas to the grocery store, even though there is a ‘pause’ on high prices, must be considered in context with my daily round trip to work. At the grocery store, I scrutinize name brands and spend a lot of time inspecting the cheaper house brands, before I fill my shorter food and necessity list. I have decided that cheap toilet paper is not worth the savings. But, I am trying to acquire less sophisticated tastes. I really mistrust some cheaper foods, given the news about melamine and Bisphenol A (BPA). I am tending to mistrust the FDA. FDA refuses to officially warn American consumers about the risks, Europe is acting more responsibly. Don’t get me started about health care, Big Pharma or insurance. I take every vitamin designed to prevent or reduce the chances of getting sick. I drive too carefully, heaven forbid I have a collision.

I see ghosts of grandmother’s description of the 1930s nightmares everywhere I go. All the protections that were devised to prevent and protect the US population from another Great Depression meltdown, have been emasculated. Eight years of dismantling federal government accountability, stripping away regulations that protect consumers and the general public, has stripped away my trust for government in general. Government is a necessary evil, but add unnecessary risk, contrary to the welfare of the individual, and you have the makings of a radical, control freak environment, where ALL personal rights are dictated. The historical consequence, or solution, depending upon your preferences, is to engage in another WAR or expand existing WARS to reinforce limiting civil liberties and demanding tax tributes remain unaccountable.

The American Taxpaying Public has agreed to remain vassals to War Lords. We don’t pursue accountability. We just accept that everything done to us in in the interest of “National Security”. Listening to my phone calls helps National Security? So be it … I look upon the American Public as the Golden Goose our stupid War Lords are killing, for personal/corporate profit. Real or imagined threats from the terrorists our country created are less dangerous than the atmosphere of totalitarianism created by the George Bush Administration, led by Dick Cheney. Did you know that there is a 100 mile “Constitution Free Zone” that encircles America’s borders? Trying to anticipate the next atrocity stresses my soul … there is nowhere to run, unless you have enough money to run. The thought of becoming an illegal alien in another country bothers me a lot.

The stress of this US Presidential election is overwhelming. I am about to see if this country has been dumbed down irreparably. I have no interest in living out my life in a suppressive regime that has resurrected racism and class warfare. The extreme Right Wing that wields the name of “Jesus” like a baseball bat. If you say the word “Jesus” or “Christian” you demand respect and privilege, without having earned it. Allow my flashback. I witnessed a drunk and disorderly middle aged woman being confronted by two police officers. She screamed, “you can’t do this to me, I am a Christian White Woman, how dare you arrest me …”. Anyone who does not fit into the tight little box built by Christian Fundamentalists is a target for abuse. Another Republican Administration that courts these religious radicals, and tolerates the racial extremists shows me that America is just a memory.

The plague of cronyism and special interest is so out of control that we are mere vassals. My tax dollars are intended to support the infrastuructue I depend upon and protect my safety and welfare. Now, my tax dollars are treated as tribute to special interests who refuse to account for their spending. The Bush Administration has bankrupted this country. The Economic Bailout is nothing but borrowed money. Temporary fixes are just that, a small bandaid on a gaping wound.

As a lame duck American President, George Bush has unimaginable powers of manipulation that will impair and impede the next American President. I have worried and speculated for over a year that Bush will pull a stunt in his last days to guarantee America will be glued to a new war. Another war that fills the pockets of his military-industrial complex, and spends tax dollars like they are a tribute to his greatness. Tax dollars have already been mis-spent, wasted and treated like play money. He has already started to put policy in place to accelerate momentum toward war.

This excerpt from The impending strike on Iran, Asia Times, exacerbates my concerns:

The popularity Obama has enjoyed as a candidate will soon turn to hostility if the average American family had to suffer because he didn’t keep his promise to end the war. His decision will be due to economic reality – but it will have very dangerous political, military, and national security implications. Most of all, George W Bush’s entire legacy will be wiped away.

Don’t you think the Bush administration is pondering this possibility?

A president is definitely most powerful when he is a lame duck who is ceding power to an opposing party. If you are the outgoing president, or a member of the outgoing administration, you are thinking one thing: if Obama wins, November and December would be ideal time to attack Iran.

Consider this:

# Bush is a lame duck. He won’t be around to have to deal with any fallout from such a move.
# Obama will never attack Iran. Four years from now, we will not be able to stop Iran from completing work on their bomb. Bush has always had a big sense of destiny in his leadership. If he believes that he is the only one who can save the world, he may decide to do it.
# Obama can fix the damage. The Arab world loves Obama. They view him as a fellow Muslim. After Bush protects the nations of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Dubai, Qatar and half of Europe from nuclear disaster, and these nations openly proclaim their hatred for him, Obama can come to power and spend his first 100 days in office “apologizing” for Bush’s “mistakes”. The US will literally get a “free pass” for this in the eyes of the world.
# When oil was at $147 a barrel, there was no way the Bush administration was going to risk spiking it to $250 – especially with a presidential election coming up. Come November, oil will be trading at $70 per barrel. A strike on Iran may raise the price temporarily to its 52-week high of $150 per barrel. The election will be over and politically, the Bush administration will have nothing to lose.
# An attack on Iran will force the American military to stay in Iraq for a longer period of time. The immediate Iranian response to an American attack will be to escalate the war. They will “green light” Shi’ite groups in Southern Iraq to go back to war with American forces. They will finance and encourage terrorist groups around the world to hit America wherever and whenever. They will broaden the war in the region by inciting Syria, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon to attack Israel – assuming they don’t fire on Israel themselves. America will have to stay at least an extra 2-3 years until things “quiet down” again. This new situation will also insure that the national security infrastructure created after September 11, and nurtured throughout the Bush administration, will not lose any of its powers during the new administration.
# Members of the Bush administration, who left their jobs in the private sector, will soon be returning to the private sector. They all came from the oil industry and they want to make sure that they will be taken care of. Those 433,000 stock options in Halliburton outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney put in a trust before he assumed office – he gets them back January 20. It would be in his best interests if the shares of these companies were trading higher. That goes for the rest of the Bush administration – they will all want to make sure that the heads of the oil industry – their next employers – are happy. Obama has promised to tax the oil industry next year. An attack on Iran will drive oil prices up so that the additional revenue generated by these companies will, at a least, make up for any new tax obligations.
# The aftershocks of the US attack will keep oil prices in triple digits and reinitiate the debate about drilling for offshore oil. A higher price will give big oil new political clout in developing oil fields in areas considered environmentally unsound. A heightened global tension means that the next administration will be forced to maintain current government outlays to the defense industry.

The final three points will force Obama to continue the core policies of the Bush administration whether he likes it or not. If you are viewing the world from the point of view of the Bush administration, you see a lot of very big arguments for attacking Iran now.

From this we can come to a very simple conclusion: America will either attack Iran in the next two and a half months, or it never will. [see entire article]

Then we have THE ECONOMICS OF WAR – David Friedman, Ph. D. explains the gory details.