Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PartyTime who wrote (6107)	2/7/2003 12:45:23 AM
From: Just_Observing	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

why do you think Bush and some of the war hawks who post on this thread don't even consider such implications? The Pentagon and the Administration know the risks very well. But our circumstances and a weak and immoral leadership will almost inevitably lead us to war. We have spent $15 trillion dollars on the military since WW II. That is $15 million, million dollars - i.e., we could give $1 million to a 15 million families. And our accumulated Federal deficit is around $6.4 trillion and will rise to around $7 trillion in the next couple of years. We need to borrow nearly $500 billion a year from foreigners to finance our spending and our huge trade deficit. In other words, we are economically on the verge of disaster. The only easy solution is try to get a return on investment of our huge military spending. We are easily the most profligate users of Oil. We consume 19 million barrels of oil a day while China consumes 5 million a day. The world consumes about 78 million barrels a day. So the surest way to control our economic destiny, at least temporarily, is to control oil. It is my belief that Bush Sr. purposely did not remove Saddam in the last Gulf war so to keep alive a bogeyman to scare the Arabs into letting us keep our bases there (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE). Do you think that the Saudis would have let us keep bases there if Saddam had been removed? Absolutely not. Was it a coincidence that the price of oil stayed very low and stable after the Gulf war? Not at all. The rest of the world is far more efficient in the use of oil per unit output of GDP. The only way we can easily compete economically with China, Japan and Europe is under conditions of cheap oil. If we had a competent and moral leader, he could harness the energy and creativity of the American people to get us out of our economic problems. A weak and immoral leader will succumb to the temptation to get a return on investment of our military. I am afraid that all signs point to the use of the military. It will be Iraq, followed by Iran and Libya. And when Pakistan blows up during this process, it will also be handled. Man has always been good at killing. The population of the human race has fallen by 50% several times during human history. Now with more people alive than have ever lived, and our unsurpassed expertise in killing, we are primed for a repeat of our history. The fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves. Unless you want to count the lone star of Texas.