[GJM] Bush is Right About Iraq - It Is Another Vietnam

[Steve Consilvio]

Bush is Right About Iraq - It Is Another Vietnam

President Bush is right about Iraq; it is another Vietnam.  In fact,  
a reporter made note of this during the President’s press conference  
before we invaded Iraq.  The President responded that it was “a good  
question,” but did not answer the reporter’s question of what we  
would do differently to avoid repeating the errors of history.

The President’s hubris that an invading army should be seen as  
“liberators” is still intact, even now, and the hubris and  
incompetence of the Left is similarly intact, too.  Nobody seems to  
understand why we were attacked at the World Trade Center almost  
fifteen years ago.  While the rare reporter could ask an intelligent  
question, we have no leaders with intelligent answers.  Our problems  
in Iraq are not the result of a lack of proper military planning; our  
problems are a result of a lack of understanding of politics, history  
and economics, the same as with Vietnam.  We all went to the same  
schools and learned the same lies.  I'm an adult now, and the lies  
are still the same.

Every war is a civil war.  The American Revolution was a civil war.   
The attack of 9/11 should be seen as an act of continuing rebellion,  
and not as an act of "liberation" or war.  We all seem to know why  
people rebel against authority.  The reasons are taught daily in  
grammar school: unfair taxation, self-serving leadership,  
incompetence, immorality, gluttony and the abuse of trust and power;  
yet we never apply these standards to our own politics or to our own  
political affiliations.  Nor do we move beyond them.

Always it is “the other guy to blame.” The poor blame the rich,  the  
Right blames the Left, the Pagans blame the Believers, and they all  
do likewise in return.  It is like an Orwellian ferris wheel;  
everybody is guaranteed to get sick from fear or pride, and the  
status quo is to let the machine run unimpeded.

If I could draw a cartoon that represented all of human history, it  
would be of a lion sitting in front of a mirror, and in his  
reflection there would be a lamb. The lion always thinks of himself  
as a lamb and never seems to understand that he behaves like a lion!

America is a rich and powerful lion in the world, and the way we  
treat the world is how we treat each other.  We have reduced our  
humanity to a dollar amount, and our courts and laws stumble like  
blind men in a maze of cages.  All we ever discuss is money, without  
ever discussing the role of money in society.

We curse our circumstances rather than shining a light, and gloat  
over our prey in victory.  Yet, we are not exempt from the golden  
rules of history: we reap what we sow.  If the ends can justify the  
means for ourselves, then others will believe the same lie, too.  
Power and virtue are opposite standards with irreconcilable  
differences.  Power will always be attacked because of the burden it  
creates on others.

There has only ever been one path to peace, freedom, liberty and  
equality: To Love your Enemy.  Once we give honor to rebellion, we  
give honor to sin and sinners.  If we don’t want to be ruled by  
lions, then we must stop acting like lions.  If we love our enemy,  
then we will have no enemies.  If we prepare properly for the next  
generation, then the next generation can avoid our sins, as we avoid  
our own. No army can liberate a people from themselves.  If an army  
could do any good, then the good would have been accomplished long  
ago.  The dominoes that President Bush expected to fall have fallen.   
The Iraqis believe in war and power, just like himself.

The reason that people rebel is because the government that creates  
the money also devalues it through taxes and Interest.  As a result,  
businesses pursue profits to pay the government’s taxes, this in turn  
creates inflation for everyone.  To escape inflation, the pursuit of  
privileges through political force quickly follows.  The easiest way  
to get rich is to sell to the government or be supported by it. This  
action simultaneously impoverishes us and our children.  Inflation  
leads to acrimony, and then thing begins to simmer.  Small  
differences become big.  People look for someone to blame.  Racism,  
ethnicity, and habit become the basis of groupthink and hatethink.   
Paranoia, fear and anger eventually rise to the surface on the lips  
of an arrogant man and he creates a consensus of who should be the  
scapegoat.  Violence bursts forth like a volcano, and society  
collapses into civil war destroying all of its accomplishments along  
with the peace.  Lions battle lions, all in the name of protecting  
the lambs, of course.  But there are no lambs, only various degrees  
of fear and pride.

Our problems are deeper than a generation gap.  The past preys on the  
present through the control of the land, and through the issuance of  
charters and privileges. Whether the land is controlled by the  
Church, the government or corporations, the effect is the same  
because the habits of control and centralization are the same.

An Empire is a central government, a central bank and a standing  
army, and that combination pre-determines the high value of land and  
the low value placed on humanity.  Foreclosures,  bankruptcies, debt  
and hoards of wealth are something we ignore at our peril.  These are  
the antecedents of war.  A chain is only as strong as its weakest  
link. The intellectual agreement that money represents makes everyone  
weak and crazy as inflation advances.  The love of money has never  
served men well.

There is only one way to stop these battles between two or more self- 
righteous lions.  The world needs a Jubilee, and then we can have  
peace and plenty.

The land has existed for billions of years, and there is more than  
enough for everyone without the need to fight over it. The  
universities, unions, individuals and corporations are hoarding  
wealth and punishing debtors indirectly. We are now persecuting our  
children with debt for college expenses, and then teach them to be  
greedy through shrewd banking simultaneously.  Every generation is  
amplifying the errors of the previous generation.

Government is the original instrument of greed and folly, but it is  
the individual acting on his own understanding of virtue (or lack  
thereof) that creates the government. Pension funds, cash reserves,  
and endowments represent a fear of the future, not a plan for the  
present.  These idle hoards, and the merciless forces that created  
them, are crushing everyone equally.  We need to “divest” from our  
past habits and value people in the present instead of fearing the  
future.  In Jubilee we can wipe the slate clean and create the world  
we desire for all children, but we must all assume the role of a  
peacemaker not of a warmaker.

Do we have the same courage to forgive as we do the courage to kill?  
The choice is ours to make as an individual, not the President's.   
Can you see the lion in your mirror?  Do you recognize the wisdom of  
the lambs, or will we go on slaughtering ourselves?
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