RE: [Futurework] Gone with the Water

[Harry Pollard]

Lawry,   The most significant parts of the Federal Budget are waste, pork, and perks. This has nothing specific to do with Bush – it’s the way things are done in Washington. Actually, 80% of the Federal Budget is transfer payments. As Churchill once said, “All a government does is to take some money out of a pocket and put it into another pocket. Unfortunately, in the process, some falls to the ground.”   Not found among our Washington politicians is looking ahead. Again, this has nothing specific to do with Bush – it’s the way it is. As I said, reports across the nation indicate that our roads, bridges, and general infrastructure, are in parlous condition.   I’m sure you are not suggesting that the sinking levees only began to drop after the tanks rolled across the Iraq border. The reason for the problems is not Iraq, but politicians who cannot think past the next election.   If New Orleans’ politicians – or the State’s – saw great danger in those levees, why didn’t they do it themselves? A 1% sales tax would have built up funds and perhaps transformed those levees into real structures rather than (apparently) earthen walls. Also, it would have made sense to build internal walls so any break would flood one small area rather than the whole city.   If my city was 14 ft below a surrounding ocean I think I would make an effort to increase safety.   I suppose its part of the prevailing trend not to do anything for oneself. Rather, it’s up to the Feds to do it. If the Feds don’t do it – well, we haven’t has a really big hurricane since Miami in 1926.   With regard to Iraq, you suggest that I cannot escape the “moral implications” of my support for “those adventures”.   You should read what I write rather than make assumptions. I’ve said umpteen times that my views changed when the tanks began to roll across the border.   The moment we became physically involved in Iraq and its future, we were committed. Rather like Cortez, we had burned our ships – there was no turning back.   We must pursue our policies to make Iraq a democracy able to defend itself in spite of enormous difficulties. We can’t pull up our knickers and scamper out of the country. Too much is at stake.   (Separately, I’ve weighed the chances – particularly using the example of Africa. The Brits, for example, in Kenya left at Independence a fully operating bureaucratic structure for the Kenyans. The result – unbelievable corruption – with bureaucrats of the Moi administration along with present politicians now among the largest landowners in the country.   Africa for the Africans – or, at least, for some of them.   As you can tell, I don’t rate high the chances of Iraqi success.   Yet, I believe we have to try.   I assume you want us to pull down our tents and head back to the US leaving Iraq in the throes of civil war. Can you escape the moral implications of that policy?   No doubt you would say we shouldn’t be there in the first place. But, we are. There is no point in fighting the political battles of 2002. In 2005, we are there – so address that.   Of significant importance is the effect of our sudden withdrawal on our enemies. The belief is that all you need to get the Americans to cut and run is to bloody their noses.   That could cost a lot of American lives in the future. I don’t think we dare do it – if we can avoid it.   A friend of mine reacted to this thought by reminding me of WWI Passchendaele, where thousands of British troops were sent again and again against the artillery and machine guns until they built up more than 300,000 casualties. I think the Somme in 1916 was worse. The British “National Guard”  - the volunteer Territorials won the Battle of the Somme – causing something like 500,000 to 650,000 German casualties.   Trouble was that the Territorials ceased to exist. They lost 58,000 casualties on the first day – 420,000 during the battle. The French lost 195,000. I think the Allies advanced all of 12 kilometers.   The Generals should have been lynched.   The carnage led to Rupert Brooke’s sad poem:   “If I should die, think only this of me.     That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.”   If I thought that we should find ourselves in a similar position – I would say get out now. But I don’t think that.   Check back next year – or even next month.   Harry   ******************************** Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655  Tujunga  CA 91042 818 352-4141 ********************************   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lawrence deBivort Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 6:05 AM To: futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca Subject: RE: [Futurework] Gone with the Water   Harry, you entirely missed the point of Karen’s posting. She reported a significant instance where the cost of the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan DID cut back improving the New Orleans levees.  At this point those adventures have cost the US citizen well over $120 BILLION. Perhaps money grows on Georgist trees, but in the real world it doesn’t.   You cannot escape the moral implications of your support for those adventures by saying they have had no impact on domestic infrastructural maintenance or improvement.   Lawry

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