You're saying that no planes were scrambled. Are you sure about that?
The plane that hit the Pentagon crashed about an hour after the WTC was struck, in the interim, no planes were scrambled (well perhaps 4 minutes before from an airbase over 100 miles away, great response by the world's sole superpower, I bet Cuba could defend their capitol better than we could defend ours). What a lame defense for our nations capitol. Even if they weren't sure that it was indeed a terrorist attack occuring in New York, you'd think they'd scramble planes to defend DC just as a precaution ($400B can buy a lot of planes). They knew a plane that took off from DC had been hijacked and turned around over Ohio and was heading back to DC, yet no planes were scrambled from Andrews AFB?!?
Something definitely doesn't add up: you're complaining about the size of military budgets, and yet you apparently want troops and military equipment in city streets?
No, I want our priorities straight. Why are we spending $400 Billion to defend South Korea from North Korea, and Japan from Russia (still apparently even after the cold war, go figure), Germany from a bunch of murauding potheads from the Netherlans (why we still have troops in Germany is anyones guess), troops in the ME defending ExxonMobil's and Shell's and the rest of those bloated pigs "access" to oil, Kuwait from Saudia Arabia (since Iraq is no longer a threat). No, I don't want troops in our nation's capitol like some Banana Republic, but I do want to know that if we ever have another terrorist attack that our $400 Billion "defense" budget has money set aside to properly defend our nation's capitol from attack on a moments notice. Isn't that the reason the military is suppossed to exist anyway? To defend our country from attack? Not to defend Germany and Japan from enemies that no longer exist or defend ExxonMobils right to cheap oil. Our priorities are upside down. We should make sure our defenses our ready and able before going out on a globe-trottin defense mission.
There are a lot of things about 9/11 that don't add up.
What things "don't add up"?
I haven't yet...despite seeing loads of character assassination, rhetoric, and undocumented conspiratorial nonsense...reviewed a credible bit of evidence pointing to a gigantic, secret conspiracy behind which - depending upon who tells it - were the Bush Administration, Israel, France, Russia, or something called "elite banking interests," a term which though bandied about liberally no one seems willing to define.
To each his own on that one. If you look at the way our military and government responded to 9/11 and don't have any questions about their response (or lack of response), that's your business. Because, a lot of people who love this country wonder why we pay the military if they responded as poorly as they did on 9/11. I mean, isn't the President the Commander in Chief? Why the hell did he continue reading to school children while an unprecedented terrorist attack was occuring. He should have left immediately and started to lead like a Commander in Chief (strange?). Same goes for Dick Cheney and General Myers. What the hell do we pay these people for?
Ever heard of the Green Brook flood control project that has been on the drawing boards for 30 years because of a lack of funds? It would only take about $200 Million to complete and would benefit the central part of our state quite a lot.
You've mentioned that a few times now. It's good that you have, like I, a healthy and continuing mistrust of government. Now: do you think that this flood control project hasn't been undertaken because politicians are allocating resources in a way that benefits certain contributing constituencies more than others...or because they are plotting to flood your area and sell boats to the public at marked-up prices?
As I grow older I realize that all government spending is politically motivated. Obviously, if the citizens in the working class part of New Jersey had anywhere near the political power of say ExxonMobil or LockheedMartin, perhaps the federal government would throw them some crumbs and get the project built so their homes don't continue to get flooded from time to time. I just think it's a travesty to see President Bush talking about spending a whopping $87 Billion on a foreign country, while projects like this flood control project go unbuilt for decades because of a lack of poltical will and funds. Priorities?
But, we're spending $150 Billion to destroy and rebuild Iraq, so we can control their oil.
That's an opinion, stated as fact.
Our priorities are all screwed up.
Boy, you said it. Those who give the government a pass on their wasteful ways by engaging in conspiratorial flights of fancy are essentially handmaidens to the bureaucratic wrongdoing. Adding a bit of sane parsimony to the logical process would put the blame where it belongs.
The U.S. government is government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. Every year that passes makes that ever more clear. Why do you think we're spending $150 Billion on Iraq while our infrastructure crumbles and public works projects go unfunded? Who benefits from that $150 Billion windfall? I'll give you a hint, Defense Contractors and BIG OIL. The federal government is little more these days than a slush fund operation for corporate America. Every effort is made to steer money their way and ignore pressing social and infrastructure needs. Are you happy that $150 Billion of your money is going to Iraq when it could balance every state budget deficit in the U.S. and build just about every infrastructure project that has been on the drawing boards for the past decade in the U.S. Now, that would benefit ordinary Americans. They don't want ordinary Americans to start viewing the federal government as something that can improve their lives, or else ordinary Americans might actually start getting involved in the political process again and might not allow them to throw money down corporate rathole slushfunds like Iraq any longer (they can't have that). It's sad what America has become in 2003. A bloated superpower who is more concerned with building a global empire than maintaing it's own country in a proper way. Go read George Orwell's 1984, you might see some similarities to the way our society is structure in 2003, I sure do. |
