Gates to Congress: Predator Missile Strikes to Continue

I think the argument against increasing the present stance in Afghanistan will prove to be economic in nature under the diction, "you cannot have more goals than you have means or you cannot have more targets than you have intruments". The US is no longer in possession of monetary policy—that is the direct consequence of the FED choosing to lower interest rates to zero—the central bank has chosen to remove itself from the game altogether—implying that in the last instance the supply side solution to the problem is not "the market" but the government. Rather strange given the the kind of people who have been running this nation since Ronald Reagan—the so-called "Supply Side" dogmatists have now forced the hell that they created into a strict Keynesian realm of solutions. What is even more amazing is the attitude of these Corporate and Financial Pigs. They directly undermined the nation in a way these so-called terrorist could never dream of doing and yet they are walking with the most snot nosed an air of snobbery imaginable—they remind me of Dickens description of the Marquis in the Tale of Two Cities—they will continue in this manner unless they actually face the guillotine for their corrupt treason—they desired a rein of terror and it seems to me now is the time to give them the terror—life without parole.

Regardless of the philosophic and academic implication this supply side surrender implies, it means that to fight (fund) a war the government has at its disposition taxes and it has government spending as its major instruments—there is also the supply of money which will eventually have to be increased if government induced action can actually start up the business cycle—which will turn the banking system back on because it will mean the interest rate must go up. Still we must remember that the structure of the world economy builds on "classical economic" principles and not Keynesian. This is a direct consequence of the floating system of exchange rates. Thus when a nation's debt goes up, the value of their currency goes down in correspondence to the magnitude of the debt. At present the reality that the US is the central foundation of the global economic system has forced the world to realize that it is the US dollar that is ultimately the unit of all measure—not Gold, not Diamonds, not Oil and not the Euro or the Yen—hence the dollar is presently artificially high. This perception that America will once again come to the rescue will only remain true as long as the US proceeds down the avenue of correct decision making and this will mean that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan must end and they must end immediately.

Cutting taxes means increasing the budget deficit, while cutting taxes to wage war means zero investment will materialize because we are simply buying junk that will be destroyed. When we repair a road we improve the transport costs and perhaps even speed up the time it takes to move goods from point A to point B. We may well lower the frequency of accidents. The investment in roads thus offers a long term beneficial utility to the society, while the price of the war in Afghanistan is increased hate towards the nation and the instant any conclusion is reached in the war and industry stops producing its instruments of death we will have gained nothing towards the future accept for having created an entire generation of people who will loath and hate the USA.

Perhaps even more critical if we are to become less dependent on oil, then the place to invest will be in precisely that part of the economy which is killing us—more efficient homes, more fuel efficient automobiles, alternative energy driven automobiles, high speed railways, and so on. By making the existing houses and apartment complexes and business locations into totally passive structures (buildings that do not need electricity or energy added to them because they produce all that is needed or actually produce a surplus which could then be sold to the less efficient) we could cut dependence on oil and increase the real value of our housing sector (this would produce a true price increase in th housing sector, and by creating a high speed railway we could reduce the number of trucks as well as the use of airplanes (which seem to skate from all discussions of pollution—just as ships do). Similarly we might rebuild our entire industrial base—the industrial base from which we determine our place in the 21st century. If we are to remain a nation of central significance to the world then we ought to invest in the nation and not in wars created by corrupt and incompetent liars.

The debt of the nation is already beyond belief. The imbalance of trade is beyond belief. The American household is in debt, foreclosure rates are out of control, and the rate of unemployment is out of control. Increase government spending to fund both a meaningless war in Iraq and a meaningless war in Afghanistan and where the war in Iraq functions as a key destabilization factor in the Middle East while the war in Afghanistan functions as a key to the destabilization of South East Asia. Such war cannot be argued to be strategic and the only consequence will be that we will be weakened beyond measure.

To win in Iraq means to win diplomatic settlements which leave all parties strengthened—this means that the country that must yield in the Middle East is Israel. To ease tension in Egypt Israel must give up its ruthless ways or else pay the price. The price will be that they will find themselves cut off not because we want to but because we will have nothing left to subsidize their butchery with. The only means to easing tension in the Middle East is a Palestinian State and such a state must be independent of all things Israel. If Israel can cut of the power, cut off the food then the Palestinian State will die. If it dies then so will Israel. That is what Israel does not see. Their actions are killing us and without us there is no Israel.

Afghanistan is throwing Pakistan into a state of political disarray, which in turn throws India into a state of disarray which in turn increases the likelihood of thermo nuclear war. But also Nepal is in a state of revolution, Thailand is in a state of military dictatorship, Burma is a military dictatorship that holds the democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in permanent house arrest, while Cambodia and Laos are also very politically unstable—only Vietnam, stands strong. China is being forced into a very nasty situation where its economic growth could stagnate but when the sheer numbers of people who will suffer from this can be too great for the government to handle—which in turn could cause violent instability. How can acerbating the situation in Afghanistan be seen as beneficial to our situation or our interests or to the politics that hold that region of the world in a state of balance—we cannot forget Indonesia either. War will not succeed in solving this—only a move towards winning the good will of the people of South East Asia. That means the only real solution that Obama has in regards to Afghanistan is to deal with the Taliban, deal with the neighbors of Afghanistan—Iran and Pakistan and to attempt to bolster a means by which Afghanistan can be stabilized. A war is precisely what we cannot afford. We must achieve a normalcy of diplomatic relations with Iran—we need them to stand strong and principled. If Israel does not recognize that South East Asia is falling into a state of total instability then the US will be forced to decide—keep appeasing Israel and watch Asia disintegrate or grab Israel by the balls and tell them the truth—We have kept you afloat for 70 years and you will do as we say or you will cease to exist!

Well so much for the couch potato view—Gates might be somewhat Hawkish but he is a balanced Hawk in comparison to Rumsfeld and a far more competent individual. He actually knows what he is talking about but perhaps his pride might have to take a snap kick to the groin on Afghanistan. It is difficult for Military minded people and Intelligence people to grasp that Iran in the 1950s was a flawed policy (we must stand for a nation's right to self determination—this is also the case with Vietnam., or Chile, or Indonesia, or Nicaragua, or Cuba or Afghanistan and many other places. It isn't up to us. Had we backed Mossadegh or said to Fidel we don't like you nationalizing our industry but we admire your savvy and prowess and your belief that it is the people who count—we would have won a partner to the end of time but instead we let McCarthyism and ideological bitchiness determine the course of action and not the cool calm calculus of realism. The radical aspect of our nation's birth right via the concept of self determination has given way to imperialistic minded idiots. One wins partners by the will of good habits and undermines it by means of power crazed fools.