Re: The U.S. Postal Service has got to be kidding
We already told the world that, and then we immediately sent most of our resources off in a mostly unrelated direction. And afghanistan, where the supposed 911 attackers were trained, largely fell off the radar in terms of what we were doing about terrorism. And last I looked at the news, it is getting hot in afghanistan again, and most of our resources are elsewhere.
And besides, I don't think that governments that support terrorists are the only thing that keeps them going. Rattling the nuclear sabre is only going to stir the hornet's nest, even if all the governments in question rolled over and wet themselves like you think they would.
Solutions/directions to go?
ONE:
Stop supporting terrorists and tyrannical regimes ourselves. Of course, that has been the backbone of US foreign policy for decades. The Saudis are our pals, Saddam was our pal, heck, even OBL himself was our pal when he was fighting the Russians to a standstill in Afghanistan. Israel, love it or not, is guilty as a state of many crimes against the Palestinians, and has blown off several UN resolutions themselves. Yet we align ourselves blindly and unilaterally with Israel's position, every time, even when it is wrong. Of course Israel's opponents are going to grow to hate us, for keeping israel propped up with military and financial aid, and all those people are naturally going to see the US as their enemy as well. Those are just a few examples; there are many more. But the bottom line is: We helped to make Osama Bin Laden what he is today and we keep on supporting the terrorist regimes by being addicted to their oil. These people were nomadic animal herders just 100 years ago! Our thirst for oil at any price is what gives them leverage over us at all.
TWO:
Get the hell off the middle eastern oil teat! It's going to have to happen sooner or later anyway. We can't hope to control all the oil regions in the world by military force. So far we can't even keep the lid on one small portion of it. And there are a whole lot of people in China and India with a newfound thirst for middle eastern oil as well. This is going to mean serious sacrifice and change at home, so that right there means it won't happen anytime soon. It will only happen when we are forced into a corner and then it will hurt even more.
We should have been working hard on this problem since the seventies, but we haven't really done a damn thing about it. Read this page at NHTSA about CAFE standards and weep:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/cafe/overview.htm
These are some seriously lame fuel economy figures. Note that the standards were LOWERED from 86-89, and then in 90 raised back to the 85 standards where they have remained ever since. In other words, they have been the same or LOWER for over 20 years. Note that light trucks have even lower standards, and if your truck is over 8500 GVWR it is exempt altogether. I can tell you that my 92 diesel dodge 4x4-which is exempt by it's weight class- still can beat the CAFE standards for lighter trucks all the way up through the 96 standard. So it can be done, even in a heavy american truck, but it mostly is NOT being done and not taken seriously at all. There is no technical reason why most of the US fleet isn't getting 30-45 MPG.
Of course, many conservatives argue that we shouldn't have ANY CAFE standards, but then they are all over going to war at a cost of untold billions of dollars and tens of thousands of ruined lives so that we can continue to drive wasteful vehicles.
Short term, in Iraq:
well, that is a cluster%$!# that most of you here supported, can't you come up with anything better than fake nukes to scare the heathens? That would have only worked if we were the only ones who had them.
I'm pretty torn on this one, because I don't see any reasonable way out. That is precisely why I was oppsed to starting this brush fire in the first place. One half of me says that we should just cut our losses there and get the hell out. The the longer we remain, the worse it will get and the more terrorists there will be to vex us. Of course, I know that would make a new, different kind of mess, and would solve very little of the problem and the party that is advocating that has got NOTHING for proposals or long term objectives besides political power, so that path can't really be trusted. The other half says that we should stop fooling around with War Lite and get that mess under control even if it means committing more troops. However, I don't trust the people in charge right now to do it right, nor does there seem to be any definable, achievable goal over there except tread water and hope for jesus to return. I never did trust this administration and they've given me nothing to change that opinion. I sure don't trust them with an escalation of this war.
If this is too disruptive for you, well, you've got lots of friends here that probably feel the same way. Maybe you could all run up the little group BS flag after everything I post.
