I might add that America still has a ways to go before checks and
balances are once again in place to exert oversight and accountability
between the three branches of government, but I'm sure in time this
critical function, given to us by our founding fathers, will be put back
into place. This is particular important to balance the executive
branch desire to extend presidential power with the people need for
protection against government abuse of the peoples Constitutional
liberty freedom and due process guarantees.
Regards,
LelandJ
Leland Jackson wrote:
Bill Arnold wrote:
These reports talk about 14 permanent bases altogether
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040323-enduring-bases.htm
The above link is to an article published by the Chicago Tribune
back on March 23, 2004. A lot has changed since then,
especially the
level of support from the American people towards the war/occupation
in Iraq.
That's why I included the 2nd link, with the title: "If the U.S. is
ultimately leaving Iraq, why is the military building 'permanent'
bases?" which says it was "reviewed 5/6/06". At the very least, this
research begs the question "what's going on with those permanent
bases?". And of course a half-billion dollar "Mall of America size"
embassy is in and of itself a permanent base.
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm
Perhaps the below links provides some clue as to what may have been
planned in the way of a long term American military presence in the
ME. The Bush Administration has too many neocons in high Cabinet,
DOD, and Pentagon position. The neocons are a bunch of Zionist war
zealot with an obsession to protect Israel at all cost from her ME
enemies, so I think the neocons envisioned a long term US present in
the middle east with eventual regime change in Iran and Syria, in
addition to the regime change that has taken place in Iraq. I think
the DOD and the pentagon have budgeted a lot of line items under one
category and then spent the money for new weapon and other military
items, and much of the money appropriated under the emergency measure
of the Patriot Act for the war on terror/Iraq never even hit the
budget, so financially the books are a mess and who knows where the US
really stands financially.
The Bush Administration is running out of time and is not nearly as
far along in its scheduled neocon agenda as planned. The Bush
Administrations/neocon link with the Radical Religious Righter has
began to deteriorate, its attempts to amend the constitution with
anti-gay and anti-abortion constitutional amendment have failed, its
attempt to dismantle Social Security and the Federal Income Tax System
have also failed, attempts to kill the senate filibuster and put
really extreme Supreme Court Justices on the bench have failed,
attempts to bankrupt the country have failed, attempts to unify the
Republican party into a permanent majority party of partisan
legislator who represent the wishes of the executive branch instead of
the people has started to break up, and the country is beginning to
come back together again form the divisions created by the neocons
using hot button issues like the threat of terrorism, limits on
American privacy rights, gay marriage, abortion, and the
war/occupation of Iraq as a wedge issues to divide and conquer our
constitutional government.
The shaping of the ME into a US and Israel good neighbor though
military action followed by regime changes has proved to be much more
difficult than the neocon ever imagined, and have exhausted our troop
and spread our military personnel much thiner than originally
envisioned, and who would want to volunteer for the military given
current risks and conditions in Iraq? It has also provided a
motivation for America to begin a long journey towards becoming energy
indepented.
It look to me like we Americans will soon be able to take back our
country, establish true democracy once again, and put the country back
on a more sane and stable course.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2005/03/enduring_bases_iraq.html
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2323/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/19/AR2006061901090.html
Regards,
LelandJ
<clipped>
The American people are still processing what has happened just as
fast as they can. The process goes in steps like 1) Denial,
2)
Anger, 3) Bargaining, 4) Acceptance, a lot like someone who is
dieing. Until
America processes through to accepting what has happened, not much
can be done, but in time the truth will need to be brought to light
to write a true history of this period in America.
Time is not our friend. Once things start to go downhill, as is
happening, it's imperative to get off the failed track as quickly as
possible. One cannot overstate the importance of psychology in this
regard. Our enemy is still 'down' psychologically. If we give him reason
to be emboldened, his euphoria will spread. If we really want that war
to end, we can't let this happen. But we can't win it alone. To get the
support we need we must have help, and that will not be forthcoming
without an attitude change.
I was stationed at Binh Thuy Air Base, Vietnam, during 1967 and
1968, so I experience the TET offensive that started in early Feb
1968, very up close and personal. It took the TET offensive before
American began
coming to terms with the futility of it all and the Vietnam era was
written down in history for posterity. Here is a link as a little
reminder of the Vietnam era:
http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/lists_archive/sixties-l/3219.html
To think that lesson was so quickly forgotten only denigrates the
sacrifices of so many people on both sides.
Bill
[excessive quoting removed by server]
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