August 2008
Reason #42: China and the Myth of Free Trade
Did you know that an authoritarian communist country is now keeping our supposedly capitalist economy afloat? No? Well, it’s true. And it’s scary as hell.
Politicians from both parties remind me of cult members sometimes, the way they mouth the mantra of “free trade” and parrot the conventional wisdom that globalization and more trade with fewer barriers is always a good thing. They treat “free trade” like it’s a religion. But like most religions, the free trade faith has an awful lot of myth in it.
Globalization has its benefits, for some at least. It makes many of our largest corporations boatloads of…
August 29, 2008 | Read More
Restore the Lost Legacy of Service
I didn’t “engage” the enemy in my Army days. The only overseas action I saw was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and the only armored vehicle I ever rode in was an L.S.D., a Large Steel Desk. But I still served my country with honor. And, in return, it served me by giving me skills and valuable life lessons.
Sadly, most young people today don’t get the opportunity to serve, and we’re doing them and ourselves a dis-service because of it. Our all-volunteer army may be the most powerful fighting force in the world, but our country should be about more…
August 28, 2008 | Read More
Redraft the Draft?
A couple of years ago, New York Congressman and Korean War veteran Charlie Rangel proposed that we reinstate the draft. Rangel wanted to bring shared sacrifice back to the nation. If the war in Iraq was really worth fighting, he said, then all of our young people should have the opportunity to help the cause.
Not surprisingly, the idea didn’t get very far. The Pentagon and the Bush Administration boasted about the power of our “all-volunteer military.” But the problem with an all-volunteer fighting force is that a small percentage of the population winds up doing all the country’s dirty work.…
August 28, 2008 | Read More
Really Support the Troops - Give Them a Raise!
Our soldiers risk their lives and spend years away from their families. Yet they earn a pittance. Meanwhile, private contractors and mercenaries take home fat, taxpayer-funded salaries. This is disgraceful. No private contractor in a war zone should make more than our troops. Period.
If the Pentagon and other government agencies like the State Department insist on hiring private companies to do work that our soldiers used to do themselves, congress should pass laws mandating that our GI’s earn at least as much, or, better yet, more than the private contractors working in the same overseas area.
August 28, 2008 | Read More
Loose LOGCAP and Other Privatization Boondoggles
For centuries, our GIs did a perfectly fine job of feeding, housing and equipping themselves. But that didn’t stop career politicians from handing those jobs to their cronies - and past and future employers - in the private sector. This mad rush to privatize war-making has not only been extremely inefficient and expensive, it’s given some of our largest corporations a perverse incentive to see our country locked in bloody quagmires overseas.
Profit should have no place in our national defense. It’s bad enough that one of the few thriving industries left in America is arms manufacturing. We shouldn’t make matters…
August 28, 2008 | Read More
Let’s Make Friends by Making a Plan
After World War II, the U.S. instituted the Marshall Plan. Named for Secretary of State George Marshall, the plan helped to reunite a shattered Europe and successfully got the governments and economies of European countries functioning again-and, for the most part, cooperating. The plan was started in 1947 and continued for four years. The war had been catastrophic, but we helped Europe rebuild and helped those countries learn to live together again.
Don’t we need a Marshall Plan for the Middle East? The place is a nasty stew of disagreements and aggression. The Israel-Palestine conflict is simmering every day. The violent…
August 28, 2008 | Read More
Stop Nation Building
The same nerve that drives us to declare embargoes and sanctions against other countries has led us into the dangerous game of nation building. We stormed the sovereign country of Panama in 1989 to topple our former friend, and CIA informant, Manuel Noriega. We sent troops to Haiti a few years later. Then we dropped thousands of bombs on Serbia to punish its leader.
As a candidate in 2000, then-governor George W. Bush pledged not to engage in this activity. We all know how well he kept that promise.
What deity granted us permission to meddle with the regimes of other countries?…
August 28, 2008 | Read More
An Embargo on Embargoes
The embargo on trade and tourism in Cuba has been an unmitigated disaster. Far from weakening Fidel Castro’s grip on power, it has allowed him to portray himself as an embattled revolutionary hero taking on the bully Yankees. Meanwhile, the only people harmed by the restrictions are ordinary Cubans-not to mention American farmers and manufacturers who could have been selling their goods in Cuba for the last half-century if not for this misguided policy.
Sanctions and embargoes are all useless and they do nothing but harm the very people we claim we want to help. The harsh sanctions we imposed on…
August 28, 2008 | Read More
Scrub the CIA
Contrary to popular opinion, the CIA has done valuable, even critical work for our nation. Its predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), helped us win World War II. And during the Cold War, someone had to counter the ruthlessness of the Soviet KGB. That kind of work is dangerous, and often messy. But early on in its existence, the CIA strayed from what it was chartered to do: gather intelligence.
The agency has had many low points. George Tenet’s WMD “slam dunk” in Iraq was just the last in a long line of criminally incompetent actions. I believe the beginning…
August 28, 2008 | Read More
Reason #99: Casualties of Government Neglect
Among the worst ordeals soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan must face is a reckoning with the invisible mental wounds prolonged combat has inflicted. With longer and more numerous tours of duty, more and more soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Already, an estimated 50,000 vets have sought psychological treatment. That number is sure to grow and it doesn’t even include the vets who are suffering but have yet to seek help.
Their rising desperation is already grimly apparent. As revealed in a recent lawsuit against the federal government filed by veteran advocacy groups in San Francisco, the suicide rate amongst…
August 28, 2008 | Read More
