The Prince and His Warning

I read with great trepidation and fear for my country the OP-Ed piece that Prince Turki Al-Faisal of the ruling House of Saud of Saudi Arabia, ally and oil provider
to the United States of America.
He is not a man without knowledge and though I don't know him personally there doesn't seem to be a trace of anti-Semites in his profound warning. He sees what I have seen for a very long time. Not that the United States has been a beacon of justice for the last thirty years, it has made some deep irrevocable mistakes but the Heavens have protected the Americans because they wished, tried with all their might to live by the ideals that their Constitution gave them.
The Vietnam War was only something I understood peripherally and the veterans who came back, despised and then thrown away like trash I felt sorry for but also I didn't understand their struggles.
But something changed in me with the War and Invasion of Iraq. Whether you were for or against please understand the slaughter and unforgivable devastation this has caused will strike when she least expects it. This is a given.
Cause and effect.
Something changed when I was sent over the net the pictures of the young Iraqi boys lined up dead like shot deer and the old missile launcher from the town armory they had used to defend and attack the American soldiers. I could not understand being proud of killing five boys, the last crouched on his haunches as the soldiers took the mandatory kill photos. Scared beyond belief his eyes like a cornered animal wondering if the human will kill or let him go.
In defense of the soldiers I do believe the soldier who wrote to me that they  tried to save the one who was still alive and took him to hospital, so I suppose the overpowering firepower that the Americans had didn't stop them from after it was over doing their best to save what was left. But it seems like the whole thing of Iraq was like that. It was destruction par excellence when we know at the last month Saddam was pleading that he would do anything to stop the slaughter of the nation, which he knew was coming.

I don't pretend to be a supporter of the Saddam regime but the fact remains it was not a fair fight at all. The country was already devastated by the Sanctions, no fly zone etc. This was a war of old resentments, stealing, and disregard for the people of Iraq fundamentally. There could have been other ways to solve the situation there without the cheering for bloodshed we engaged in.
So I have felt for a long time the screaming villagers who died for being in the wrong place wrong time, the men of Fallujah who will be remembered even though others try to stamp that memory out, and most of all those boys who were unable to live their lives. Karma will be paid and it will happen when this nation least expects it. The refugees scattered across the world from once prosperous and advanced Arab nation will know that there is a God.
I am sorry to write this. I don't hate the military or even now the soldiers that did that incident. Selfishly I see the portents of the same forces now manipulating behind the scenes that another group should not receive what is due them and that this group should suffer because somehow according to the mad thinking and desires of some political authorities in Israel and America the rights of Palestinians are different from the rights of any other global citizen.
How wrong  they are. How stupid, how arrogant to proclaim this concept democracy and then favor one nation over another. This is something that will again come back to haunt this nation and the Heavens will offer no protection.
For the religious authorities doesn't it say that God despises those who rule over the poor and oppressed without mercy, that he waits and then when the they least expect it teaches his lesson. Why must my countrymen be led by the nose like so many sheep by interests that inwardly despise them and only want their self interests advanced?
It is perplexing to me.
And it is ironic also that in my whole life I've known few Arabs and worked or associated with Jews, whom I have admired and who have been exemplary in their treatment of me. A woman who survived the brutality of the Nazi's and lived through a concentration camp was instrumental in helping my mother and sewed a small toy doll clown for me as a child. I mean how can you hate that?
I have never really had the ability to believe in the hatred of jews that some of the left seem to make it their business to foster. While I am ashamed I have ragged on the nation as if it was this big bad bully that is not true at all in reality and the nation of Israel has to have all the right to exist and prosper and not be threatened by her deadly enemies, which do exist and are very real.
It is a nation that is very admirable and has great courage.
But that doesn't make what the situation in the Israel and Palestinian nation different. What must be done is for justice and human rights and for both groups.
Favoring one group, even if more powerful, smarter, richer and militarily wiser will be a detriment to my country in the long run. The Prince is correct.

Actors, Statesmen and Presidents

I have the feeling right now that Obama is feeling pretty torn asunder. I don't blame him. The jackels are baying at the moon, waiting to sink in their teeth, not realizing that ideology maybe great but it ignores present realities in the empire.
I think Obama know this and so he's still trying to play both ends.
Unfortunately like La Clinton said,there is a vast right wing conspiracy, and it's positively mad hatter redux.
I have liked Ron Paul and what he has said regarding banking and other things but to see the teapots cheer when asked if a man who didn't have insurance should be allowed to accept his own choices for not having insurance made me sick to my stomach.
In fact of the whole lot the only one who has a decent track record, offers actual plans or solutions is a very successful Morman businessman who seems to not want to attack just for the sake of attack.

 I usually haven't voted Republican. I voted for Obama and was disappointed though I feel that he is still essentially a good, bright and capable man. Unfortunately he is surrounded by less stellar associates and seems to compromise when he doesn't need to. He is very charismatic but it remains to be seen if voted in again, which he very well might be, how much leadership he can display on a worsening economic front.
You can't tell people just to hang on when they're losing everything especially when certain strata have been given so much. I think he senses this and is pushing with all his might to do the right thing now but it may be late in the game.

Luckily for the elites of this nation the people are asleep as to the real owners and players of the game. But the wars, paid for on a big credit card, the endless giveaway of the power of the people to unelected lobbies for corporations run by a narrow elite spells doom in the long run. It is very fortunate for them that this nation has a well run propaganda system called "news" that makes it seem that the USA is still number one in all things and has the best democracy money can buy.

Unfortunately the rest of the world is hip to the trip and there's a lot of resentment for the military adventures of Team USA. Dick Cheney take note, there's a price for going to the Dark Side but you won't pay it. Sip that fine wine in your vast estate and keep thinking you can blugeon your way to safety.

There are a lot of good, honest, hard-working people in the United States. The military is full of them. So is the government. This is where I differ with the angry teapots. We are not in 1776, not 1880, or even the 1950's with I like Ike(though it would be nice to go back I'm sure).

The globally revolutionized world is moving on, and the internal politics of the United States are increasingly becoming a Weimar situation with no good prospects. Hate can be a wonderful mobilizer but it has consequences.
The evangelical right seems to understand that scapegoats are what is needed to advance the cause and there are plenty to choose from as this is a diverse nation.

The Mexican crossing the border though didn't cause the loss of jobs. The homosexual community hasn't destroyed the culture. The Planned Parenthood doesn't want to kill all the babies. And so on. But some of us believe these things.

So what is needed are statesman,in the sense male and female from all walks of life to drop ideology and pursue vigorously solutions. Plain and simple. Not saints that have never made a mistake(since who among us is without...oh never mind),
and we need to rid ourselves of hypocrites who proclaim vast ideals while secretly betting against our collective self interests. I could go into detail but I won't. It is loathsome that when we see the payment, benefits and perks of those of high office contrasted with their baying at the moon that the rest of us need to stop being so entitled and hogging the table. Pass the peas?
I'll pass the peas to you, and you'll be wearing them if you get my drift.

But I need to take the focus off them per se and deal with me and what I can do.
Make the lemonade so to say.
Enuff said, and by the way it's a beautiful day in the Empire.