Day: May 3, 2011

Reality: Bin Laden Won In Goal To Bankrupt America By The War On Terror!

As we celebrate the demise of Osama Bin Laden, we must remember that his major goal was not to count the number of people killed over time, but rather to divide us, make us paranoid, and cause us to spend trillions in reaction to September 11.

That is precisely what has happened, with our defense budget doubled since 2001, and with a tremendous investment in national security, including a new cabinet agency, the Department of Homeland Security.

This is money that could have been used to improve our infrastructure, our health care, our education, our environment, and so many other domestic needs!

The median income has declined five percent since 2001, and the country is much worse off economically, as we battle over the national debt and the deficit, after such a heavy public investment in reaction to Osama Bin Laden.

So while we may have finally killed Bin Laden, he could enjoy the past ten years of his life knowing that he had bankrupted us, spending ourselves into oblivion!

We must start to plan the future, and that includes a realistic look at our role in the world after Osama Bin Laden!

Obama Action On Bin Laden Proof John Kerry Was Right In 2004 Campaign Stand On War On Terror

In 2004, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the Democratic Presidential nominee, was trashed by the Bush Administration and Vice President Dick Cheney for his assertion that defeating terrorism was based on law enforcement, rather than constant military intervention!

Kerry said intelligence gathering and law enforcement, in cooperation with other nations, was the way to fight terrorism, rather than create military clashes with other civilizations.

Kerry also said that we should look at terrorism as a nuisance, not as a constant threat to everyone on a daily basis. If we militarize the struggle against terrorism, we will be involved in endless military confrontations, he declared! Instead, we should work to improve relations with the Islamic world!

Instead, we have spent four trillion dollars and lost 49,000 men, dead and wounded combined, in fighting an endless war against terrorism, which cannot be won by military strategy alone, as shown by the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The last decade did not have to be a decade of war, causing our tremendous national debt. We did not need to overreact as we did, and this will always be the condemnation that the Bush Administration deserves!

We live in a world now more unsafe than it was on September 12, 2001, and if we had had President Al Gore or President John Kerry, that would not have been the result, and we would not have to be considering destroying Medicare and Medicaid, and denying children educational needs, and damaging the environment, and the denial of civil liberties that was brought about by the Patriot Act hysteria right after September 11!

So although losing the Presidency, we owe gratitude to Senator John Kerry for his vision and wisdom, not appreciated by his countrymen in 2004!

Republican Lies And Deception After Bin Laden Is Killed Under Obama’s Watch

It is amazing how the Republican leadership feels a need to promote lies and deception in a moment of great triumph for President Obama!

They have to put in the concept that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and others working under the last administration were responsible for providing information that helped Obama accomplish a goal that Bush could not achieve in more than seven years.

They try to claim that “enhanced interrogation techniques”, meaning torture including water boarding, were responsible for information that led to the successful mission. But it is clear that is a total fabrication, meant to justify the Bush Administration’s violation of international law and the laws of war!

Also, it is clear that George W. Bush, himself, had dismissed the importance of finding Bin Laden within less than a year after September 11!

It is also clear that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and General Tommy Franks, in charge of the Afghanistan invasion in 2001, chose not to pursue Bin Laden at Tora Bora when we knew he was there in the months after September 11, allowing him to get away and live in hiding for nine and a half years!

So for the Bush loyalists to claim that Bush and his administration deserve credit for what has happened is totally without substance, and it is time for the Republicans to give full credit to the courage and brilliance of Barack Obama, who has accomplished the greatest single victory by his actions since John F. Kennedy accomplished the solution of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962!

The Change In The Democratic Party Image On Foreign Policy: From JFK To Obama

Ever since the failure of John F. Kennedy to overthrow Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs fiasco in April, 1961, Democratic Presidents have had to carry the burden of being perceived as weak and ineffective in foreign policy.

Of course, this is not totally the truth as John F. Kennedy negotiated very skillfully through the Cuban Missile Crisis a year after the Bay of Pigs, but the concept stuck to the party image.

In so many cases, it proved to be true in many people’s minds.

Lyndon Johnson escalated our involvement in Vietnam, and could not resolve the conflict in a satisfactory manner, and was forced out of the race for the Presidency in 1968 as a result.

Jimmy Carter was unable to accomplish the goal of rescuing the 52 hostages being held in Iran after the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. and the humiliation of those hostages being held for 444 days still rankles many Americans.

Carter’s inability to stop Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979, and the problems involved in the Cuban wave of immigrants to Florida, known as the Mariel Boat Lift, also doomed his image.

Bill Clinton’s constant threats to intervene in Bosnia with air power, a total of eleven threats, before actual intervention in a successful way, also doomed him as being perceived as weak and ineffective.

The fact that JFK not only handled the Cuban Missile Crisis expertly, but also brought about the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, is forgotten.

The fact that Carter brought about the Panama Canal Treaty and the Egyptian Israeli Camp David Accords is forgotten.

The fact that Bill Clinton brought about the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the fighting in Bosnia; the successful intervention in Kosovo by NATO; and the peace arrangement in Northern Ireland is also forgotten.

And, of course, the fact that Barack Obama overcame the Somali Pirates seizure of a merchant ship in 2009 is also forgotten, conveniently.

But now, with the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the gathering of much evidence that should help the apprehending of more Al Qaeda terrorist operatives, suddenly the reputation of Democratic Presidents may be undergoing a renaissance!

It will be very difficult for the Republican Party to sully the reputation of Barack Obama, as they have been doing for the past two plus years, as a result of this gutsy, courageous, daring decision by Obama to take a chance, realizing it could have been total failure, but demonstrating resolve and commitment to the principle of fighting terrorism wherever it is!

So from April 17, 1961 to the first day of May 2011, exactly fifty years and two weeks apart, the image of the Democrats has now been transformed for the good of the future of the “party of the people”!