“A nation is just like an individual. If a man’s neighbors all hate him and he is continually in trouble, and all his fights and troubles are always over in the other fellow’s yard, he must be wrong.” – Will Rogers, 30 March 1927
Why we continue to always be fighting in the other fellow’s yard is beyond me. I am very thankful that for the most part our fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are over. We will likely on leave a couple hundred thousand of our soldiers there but that is considered a withdrawal by modern standards. . 😉
I am very thankful to our president for not getting us into more fights in Syria and Iran. But I am kind of waiting for the next shoe to drop. One of my biggest disappointments with President Obama is he is listening to all the generals way too much. That and his killer robot drone program totally disappoints me…
RJ's Corner 
He did listen to his generals over Syria- don’t go.
He isn’t listening to his generals- don’t leave anyone in Afghanistan.
He is listening to private industry- we cannot make loads of money if you don’t keep us in wars.
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Since I am basically a very anti-war guy in almost every respect they are all generals to me. 🙂
If we truly want to balance our budgets there is an extra $400 billion a year we could save that would basically make it all balanced. If we only had the guts to do it (instead of listening to the generals) (ha)
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RJ – I agree that it will be good to get our military out of some of the countries that we’re in today. It was also good that we didn’t get into Syria. And I agree the use of drones is a controversial issue for me given the “collateral damage” to innocent bystanders. On the other hand, if the governments of those countries didn’t seem to tolerate and even allow terrorists haven there, we wouldn’t have collateral damage for there wouldn’t be any need for the use of drones. For instance, how does the government of Pakistan explain how Osama Bin Ladin could be living within blocks of their governmental offices? The “tolerance” by these governments and their societies (to some degree) enable terrorists to grow there and plot attacks against us and others in the West. I agree that we need tighter controls over drones but until the world becomes a safer place, I do feel they have a place and have probably played a part in preventing any further 9/11 attacks from occurring in this country for the past decade. Their use is a definite “gray” zone issue for me. Mike
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Hi Mike. As in the previous reply, I just don’t think we need a 600 billion pound gorilla in the room, a 200 billion pound one would be enough. The next biggest gorilla is about 40 billion pounds so I think ours could beat up theirs any day even if it were subjected to a draconian diet.
I think it is kind of ironic that our country was basically formed through terrorist activities. Now don’t jump on me too much here as I am saying this rather facetiously. We just didn’t play fair by the world standards in those days either. Mr. Obama like almost all presidents before him just seems to relish using his gorilla too much. Or maybe he is just listening to the generals too much How is that for circling around to the same logic. 🙂
But you are right, we would not need to go after terrorists if they couldn’t find a place to live. From what I have read our killer robot drone program is thoroughly hated almost everywhere in the world. Many think it could happen to them no matter whether they live by our rules or not. That program is being called the best recruiting tool for terrorist organizations around today. Someone needs to take control of this new found tool.
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It is private industry that drive the war industry. Until the general public understands that, we will continue to be involved on other people’s back yards. But go ahead- blame the soldiers. They are easier targets.
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Janette, I would never blame the soldiers, or at least those below general rank. They are just conditioned to do what they are told with no questions asked. But from my limited knowledge it seems like most of the generals take their very lucrative pensions and then move on to private industry. So, isn’t the generals and private industry pretty much the same thing. The generals learn how to game the system and them sell that knowledge to their once contractors. I don’t think anyone blames the soldiers for this mess……
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