A handful of Democratic and Republican senators are considering a rewrite of 60 of the most consequential words to ever pass through Congress. The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed after the attacks of 11 September 2001, and provides the legal cornerstone for the so-called US “war on terror”. Only one brave Congress member opposed it. It allows the US government to wage war at anytime, any place and on anyone deemed a threat to national security – with remarkably little evidence needed.
As my friends over at Friends Committee on National Legislations said
“More than a decade later, Congress is still using legislation from just after 9/11 to justify troops and drone strikes around the world.“
Unlike every other occurrence in our history, when World War II ended we did not drop back to a peace time military. Instead we chose to continue fund our war machine at near maximum levels and obviously since then we have been in almost endless wars. I wonder if there is a cause/effect there? We have lost a significant number of our kids to war in every generation since. We are now fighting a “war” against terror and that by definition is not a country, State, or even a particular group but it is indeed an endless war.
One of the most disappointing things about President Obama is is radical turn from campaign rhetoric to his Oval Office stands when it comes to war making. He turned out to be very little difference from his predecessor in that regard. It is only a small glimmer of hope to see him come out recently and admit that we maybe need to get more focused than just a war on the concept of terror. A terrorist is someone who does something to strike fear in someone. You could say that is the mantra for both political parties right now. They both want you to be fearful about almost everything in this world but particularly about electing someone from the other party. Shouldn’t our war on terror include those yahoos by electing someone from the Centrist Movement.
It is insane to see how we can year after year hand over a blank check to our war manufacturers while letting our infrastructure rust away. It is insane to me how we hand over a blank check and then deny some aid for food and shelter to the least of our citizens. An absurd example of that is the $1.7 trillion that is being budgeted for the latest super high-tech fighter plane that really has little or no purpose in today’s world. It is being spent mainly to appease our military/industrial base at least until our next war is declared. This makes absolutely no sense to me.
RJ's Corner 
I agree 100%. We are caught in a cycle where most people want to scale back the government and the war machine. But, none of the elected officials dare to bring it up because that machine would characterize them as anti-American, pro weakness and would blame them for everything that goes wrong with everything.
The NSA deal is the exact example I would cite for this argument. No one wants the NSA monitoring the calls and e-mails. But, no one (including most of the media) wants to be the first one to take a stand. It is scary.
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THanks for the reply. Yeah you are right it is hard to be the first ones to stand up against the status quo. Our whole political system seems to be currently geared against getting candidates with that qualification. Only the libertarians and independents seem to now have that nerve.
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I think it has more to do with no one wants their district to be cut back. Conn wants subs. Maryland wants NSA. Virginia wants everything. Kansas wants their forts. Illinois wants their research money. Arizona wants their helicopters. The war machine was smart to spead out so everyone is hurt when it scales back.
The government is taking the chicken way out. Instead of laying off people they are simply cutting salaries by 20%. No “unemployment”. This is crazy. Make the cuts- deep if they need be, but get it over with!
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As usual Janette there is much truth to your comments. I just wish all of us would get over the idea of the federal government being a cash cow. The rich hit the poor in that regard saying that they are mooching off the government when they could go out in get a job and at the same time they are doing everything they can to get their share of the pot. They call it providing goods and services but it is often just gaming the system.
Indiana is pretty far down the list of federal money returned to the State and that is a good thing as far as I am concerned. But, I do hate to see so much of our tax income going to others.
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