I heard a great idea the other day. It was proffered by Stefan Molyneux. We should hold a referendum and find out who favors wars of aggression and foreign occupation and who doesn't. Those in favor of such things should have to pay for them. Those against said wars should receive a tax refund for the portion of their taxes that would have gone to fund such foreign adventurism. I have the feeling that if this were the case those funding said projects would quickly discover just how expensive wars are and how much it costs to maintain an empire. I think they would quickly learn that such adventurism is simply not worth the price.
I had a similar idea not that long ago, one that might even be a little more practical. I think that companies profiting from war should foot the bill. Companies such a munitions manufacturers, makers of military hardware and equipment, military software companies, oil companies that received mineral rights in occupied lands, etc. should have to pay the costs of securing their interests where war and foreign occupation is concerned. It would be interesting to see how long it would take before they figured out that war was not worth the price if this was the case. It would be interesting to see how long it would take before war would become nothing but a bad memory under such conditions.
I think we can all remember back to 2006. It was only four years ago. That wasn't that long ago. Can you remember the election of that year? The Republicans were voted out of office. They lost the majority in the House of Representatives. Why? Because of the war they let George Bush bully them into. Because they defended the lies and corruption that took us to war. Because they chose to ignore popular sentiment and march forward with unpopular plans. Because of this, they relinquished their congressional power to the Democrats.
Remember 2008? That was only a couple of years ago. There was a presidential election. The big issues were the economy and foreign policy. This guy Barry Soetoro decided to run for the presidency of the United States of America under the pseudonym Barack Obama. He won. He won because he promised "change" and "hope." People believed he would change foreign policy. People hoped he would end wars of aggression. People were fooled.
Oh, some may point to the recently touted "last of the combat troops" leaving Iraq as evidence contrary to the above statement, but I would remind them that there are 50,000 troops still occupying that country. Even if they are "non combat" troops, they are still targets to any insurgency in that nation and they still may have to engage in combat that could possibly kill innocent civilians. Our men will not be out of harm's way until they abandon their policy of foreign occupation and bring home every soldier.
I would also point to the occupation of Afghanistan and the insurgency that rages on there. Our combat troops are still fighting in that country. Innocents are still dying as a result of our occupation. Public opinion is quickly turning against our military operations there as the horrors of such an occupation come to light. Mr. Obama has done nothing to bring home our boys from that theater of operations and has, in fact, increased the number of troops there. The immorality of that war is becoming more evident with each passing day.
Mr. Obama and the Democrat Party leadership have proven themselves to be cheats and lairs of the highest order. They have shown they care nothing for the popular sentiment that catapulted them into power. In essence, they have made the same mistakes that the Republicans made in the earlier elections mentioned above. The Republicans thought they could get away with breaking their promises to provide smaller, less intrusive government. They couldn't and were voted out of office. Now the Democrats have broken their promises to end foreign occupations and change foreign policy. It's looking like the public will vote them out of office in November.
But this cycle of broken promises needs to end. The Republicans still claim to be fiscal conservatives. They need to start proving that claim. It can start with foreign policy. The occupations are costing the government hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars. The taxpayer can hardly afford to foot that bill. These occupations mostly benefit only a few politically well connected people. The propaganda spewed forth by the corporate media wants you to believe otherwise, but they haven't swayed my opinion. We cannot solve the abuses in the world by becoming abusive with our military. We shouldn't try. That's why some of the most respected of our nation's founders felt we should keep out of foreign entanglements. Trade with all, entangling alliances with none is, in my humble opinion, one of the most intelligent foreign policies our nation could adopt.
The Republicans could go a long way toward turning this nation around. They could start to set us back on the path to a freer, more prosperous nation. The problem is that they have a credibility problem. They are just as bad as the Democrats when it comes to big government. They are just as much in love with their power as their brethren. They want to grow government just as much as the Democrats do. They use the same excuses as their fellow politicians to maintain their stranglehold on power and keep the common folk from prospering.
It is not enough to make promises of smaller, less intrusive government. This time around they must keep those promises. They must start working toward easing the control the federal government has over the lives of ordinary, everyday folk. The easiest way to do this is to become the champions of peace. They should embrace an anti war philosophy and start implementing it. They can just stop occupying foreign lands and bring our troops home. They can shut down the hundreds of bases we have all over the world and save billions upon billions a year. We have to admit that we can no longer afford to maintain an empire, and we should start shutting it down and leave the people of foreign lands alone. We should stay out of the internal affairs of other nations.
The Republicans may take control of congress in November, but nothing will change. There will still be war. There will still be big government programs and laws in place that intrude upon the businesses and privacy of ordinary citizens. People are quickly figuring out that the two party system has failed them miserably. If Republicans are voted into office and they continue to ignore the will of the people, there may be hell to pay. It may not show during this election cycle, but it certainly will show sooner or later. The patience of the masses is growing thin. Their tolerance will not last much longer. If the Republicans don't embrace an anti war, pro peace, pro freedom philosophy to become the party of the future, then someone else will and they will trounce the failed politicians who remain stuck in the past.
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