Insanity writ large

You will recall that Eisehower warned us about a military-industrial complex. Little did he know that that complex would have evolved so quickly into a military-industrial-political complex that is nothing short of total insanity. I cannot see there is any real connection anymore between our actual needs for defense and our military budget. We currently spend more on "defense" than all other nations on earth put together. What defense was involved in our cowardly attack on Iraq, a small nation that was no threat to us whatsoever? What defense was involved in our meddling in the Balkans? In Somalia? Were we about to be attacked? With legions of tanks and submarines and what-not? What about Panama? Were they about to attack us? Is Venezuela putting together an army and navy to invade us? Perhaps the danger will come from another solar system that will fly in an armada of ships and planes and tanks and howitzers and gigantic armies? Oh, yeah, Iran. No doubt the Iranians are going to attack us with massive armaments and tank battalions and submarines, and the whole works. They would have no reason to fear our thousands upon thousands of nuclear warheads that could wipe them off the face of the earth in no time. How about Russia? They used to be pretty dangerous but nowadays they seem to have mellowed and do not seem to constitute much of a threat. China, of course, might someday be a problem but actually they will defeat us economically before they even need any weapons. So what is it with our apparently paranoic sense of being attacked? The fact of the matter is, we don't have a defense budget. We have an offense budget. And that is how it should be so labeled. I am hardly an expert on such matters but I firmly believe that for purposes of defense we could halve our current budget and still have all the defense we could ever need. We don't need all this money for defense, we need it to feed the military-industrial-political complex we have allowed to grow like a malignancy on our nation. This truly is our national insanity.

Bush has now submitted an enormous almost three trillion dollar budget for the coming two years. In spite of our enormous and unprecedented national debt he thinks we should make his tax breaks permanent. He wants billions more for the "war" in Iraq. He suggests we get some of this money by cutting back on medicare and medicaid and also on some 141 other agencies. Bush is insane. His budget is insane. If Congress goes along with it they, too, will be insane. If they go along with more money for Bush's immoral "war" in Iraq they will be doubly insane. Is no one going to step forward and finally just say NO?

Is this nightmare never going to end? Will Republicans ever come to their senses and realize the damage that Bush/Cheney have done to their party? Do they truly have a death wish? Will Bush/Cheney ever be held accountable for their multiple war crimes? Is there, truly, no justice? What has happened to my country?

NO ESCALATION! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!