July 29, 2007 by lonbud
Yeah, That’s The Ticket!
The incomparable minds of the Bush administration announced the latest sure-fire strategy for defusing tensions in the Middle East on Friday: a plan to distribute $20 billion worth of high-tech weaponry among Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
A separate deal for Israel, reportedly worth $30 billion, was also said to be in the works.
A small band of malcontents in the U.S. House of Representatives, along with naysayers and defeatists in the human rights and arms control communities, are pledged to argue for the negative position in the coming debate over the efficacy of putting out fire with gasoline.
The U.S. deal comes less than a year after the Saudi Government inked an even more valuable deal with British weapons manufacturer BAE Systems. That deal, after additional scrutiny, appears to have been executed in less-than-completely aboveboard fashion, something altogether unheard-of in the annals of U.S. arms trading.
An interesting and ultimately revealing fact of the current plan for flooding the world’s most volatile region with as many weapons systems as the globe’s arms manufacturers can produce, is that a Google search for news on the story turns up almost nothing from U.S. media sources.
It’s almost as if the Homeland Press believes that if it doesn’t report the news, it isn’t happening.
But that’s just an outrageous thought, isn’t it?
Louis Jaffe - July 29, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
The strategy is “war without end.”
Bryan - July 29, 2007 @ 5:34 pm
Ike warned us on his way out the door. But how do we actually get rid of the military industrial complex?
Bubbles - July 29, 2007 @ 5:45 pm
Show me the vooney… lest we be easily distracted by the sleight of hand. I am reminded of the George Bernard Shaw play, Major Barbara. It is pure Industry; there’s not a drop of ideology lurking here:
– – –
LADY BRITOMART. There is no moral question in the matter at all, Adolphus. You must simply sell cannons and weapons to people whose cause is right and just, and refuse them to foreigners and criminals.
UNDERSHAFT [determinedly] No: none of that. You must keep the true faith of an Armorer, or you don’t come in here.
CUSINS. What on earth is the true faith of an Armorer?
UNDERSHAFT. To give arms to all men who offer an honest price for them, without respect of persons or principles: to aristocrat and republican, to Nihilist and Tsar, to Capitalist and Socialist, to Protestant and Catholic, to burglar and policeman, to black man white man and yellow man, to all sorts and conditions, all nationalities, all faiths, all follies, all causes and all crimes. The first Undershaft wrote up in his shop IF GOD GAVE THE HAND, LET NOT MAN WITHHOLD THE SWORD. The second wrote up ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO FIGHT: NONE HAVE THE RIGHT TO JUDGE. The third wrote up TO MAN THE WEAPON: TO HEAVEN THE VICTORY. The fourth had no literary turn; so he did not write up anything; but he sold cannons to Napoleon under the nose of George the Third. The fifth wrote up PEACE SHALL NOT PREVAIL SAVE WITH A SWORD IN HER HAND. The sixth, my master, was the best of all. He wrote up NOTHING IS EVER DONE IN THIS WORLD UNTIL MEN ARE PREPARED TO KILL ONE ANOTHER IF IT IS NOT DONE. After that, there was nothing left for the seventh to say. So he wrote up, simply, UNASHAMED.
CUSINS. My good Machiavelli, I shall certainly write something up on the wall; only, as I shall write it in Greek, you won’t be able to read it. But as to your Armorer’s faith, if I take my
neck out of the noose of my own morality I am not going to put it into the noose of yours. I shall sell cannons to whom I please and refuse them to whom I please. So there!
UNDERSHAFT. From the moment when you become Andrew Undershaft, you will never do as you please again. Don’t come here lusting for power, young man.
– – –
That’s enough folks move along there’s nothing here….
Wildfeather - July 29, 2007 @ 5:56 pm
Saudi Arabia is wise enough to know that they are being set up for the kill. It’s too bad, it might have been better had they been ignorant. But, they have no choice because the United States’ diplomacy and shrewdness outclasses them. We are unashamed of our black pupils and, in truth, stand fully able to make them plainly visible during any discussion.
By pitting the military strength of Israel against the Saudis, some say that the US can control the Middle East quite effectively. It has long been the thinking of many: “Why should our troops have to get killed , when their troops can get killed?” With this philosophy and the aforementioned strategy both Israel and Saudi Arabia become more and more beholden to the √önited States of America. This is an ancient strategy that most well educated people know (knew) about, especially the Merchant Bankers of old; both sides are forced to escalate … must, in order to remain the stronger, and must keep current. US industries like Ceradine and GE jump for joy, and their investors dance all the way to the bank for years to come, according to certain Wall Street projections. Beginning at fifty bil, it is predictably certain that there’ain’ no end to how high the ante can go either. Year after year, maintaining the new sophisticated arsenal will require expensive periodic updates as obsolete technology must, unfortunately, make way for the on-schedule appearance of new improved guidance systems, along with the rest of the entertaining fireworks newly designed to amaze and stun the enemy. The military industrial infrastructure of the US will be burdened with the responsibly to provide for all these intricate changes improving its R&D while generating sexy, hot new machines for war and killing folk effectively. Plus, the US gets to rule the roost where it’s too hot, too hard, and too moral for anyone with an uncircumcised penis to really enjoy himself. And, that’s why some folks think they brought females inside the tanks these days, sorta provides for interesting options when there is nothing else to exploit. But, that’s what the voices are saying … and, talk is cheap.
Now, as far as my own opinion goes, I will say simply this: in the words of Hamlet, “This is not, nor can it come to good. But, break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.” —Wildfeather
harshmoon - August 1, 2007 @ 6:03 pm
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt”.
-Measure for Measure (Act I, Scene IV)
lonbud - August 7, 2007 @ 8:43 pm
harshmoon, I’m pleased to see you are a fan of the Bard and it’s interesting you’ve chosen one of the so-called “problem plays” from which to draw your cryptic quote.
Measure For Measure is infamously neither tragedy nor comedy but each of them by their own measure, as it were. And certainly apropos of the times we live in today. Good people still struggle mightily to balance charity and justice in ways not unlike those that moved Shakespeare’s pen 400 years ago.
So what, exactly are you trying to imply by your emphasis on the good we might lose by giving voice to our doubts, by allowing forbearance in the face of things we believe but don’t know to be true?
I’ll leave you with another quote from the same play, Act III, Scene ii:
“He who the sword of heaven will bear should be as holy as severe, pattern in himself to know grace to stand, and virtue go … Shame to him whose cruel striking kills for faults of his own liking.”
harshmoon - August 8, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
Well, someone has to play the bad guy here, since your favorite isn’t paticipating, right?
I chose Measure for the very reason you state, but w/ Shakespeare in general; one can always find a quote to support/enhance a given postion such as the use of Hamlet before me. That was my only true implication.
I too, like so many, struggle on a daily basis at my current job to define the gray; and make the most sound and right decisions based on information I have at the time. That as you say the balance between charity and justice. It’s hard, but too; I am the better for it.
The sound bites of the Democrats sparring over Iraq and Obama’s proposed invasion of Pakistan are revealing. They’re desperate to pin a defeat in Iraq on Bush, but they won’t pull out when it’s their war to lose. They won’t, and it is foolish to think they will. They want out before Bush leaves, but that will not happen. Even Dick Durbin was forced to admit this morning on CNN that the surge is working. Biden stated that if we were to leave, and the bad guys set up shop, we will be forced to go back.
Questioned about Bonds at the Democrat debate, Obama dodged the question. This is a guy who has no qualms about saying he’ll meet with Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but he can’t answer a simple question on Barry Bonds. If anyone is wondering if Barack Obama is “down for the struggle,” his answer to the Bonds question is all you need to hear.
President Bush skunked the Democrats on terrorist spying. The Democrats in Congress caved, leaving the far left of their base in hysterics. CNN’s Jack Cafferty, who has gone off the cliff himself, read e-mail after e-mail from viewers angry with the Democrats. Come on, these guys have access to reports we do not; and there was no skunk..
They decided to do the right thing.
I fear most that read this blog, and others like this blog, are in for more disappointment in the days ahead.
Peace on your head Brother..
t
lonbud - August 8, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
Now, that’s what I’m talking about. I only ever created this blog to have a conversation, and never made up any rules about who could post or what kind of opinions anyone had to have to post here.
I always welcomed Michael Herdegen’s comments, despite their being often made from a social and philosophical perspective the polar opposite of my own.
Michael was thoughtful, articulate, and generally polite, which is a far cry from what I’ve seen in the comment sections of the more “popular” blogs, and I miss him.
harshmoon, I don’t consider you to be “the bad guy” in any respect and I welcome your differing perspective as well — it’s all about having a conversation.
Having said that, I am already on record as believing a Democratic president and even Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress in 2008 will mean — for the most part — business as usual.
The combination of the DLC stranglehold on the party and the unholy mess the Bush administration will leave behind dooms the nation to a generation or more of lost opportunity to parlay our wealth with developments in science, engineering, and communications technology to better the lives of more than just the top few percent of us.
Let’s be clear on a few things before I sign off for tonight:
The surge, despite Mr. Durbin’s assessment, is not working, and will never work.
The war in Iraq was lost before it ever began because it is an unwinnable prospect, in addition to its being the wrong strategy for confronting the threat of radical Islam.
Mr. Bush will always and forever be associated with the greatest, most colossal defeat in American military history. He will take his place at the head of the line in front of George Custer as the personification of hubris, recklessness, and unpreparedness.
The Iraqi nation will not produce a stable democracy in your lifetime, nor in the lifetimes of your unborn grandchildren.
Speed the Plow.
lonbud - October 1, 2007 @ 1:08 am
More insanity from the world’s lone remaining superpower.