What They Don't Tell You: The Price of Wanton Empire

If we continue threatening nations in the name of "the war against terror," we're going to get called on our empire-building by the military and economic alliance of Russia and China.

Hi, this is Jody Paulson from Moscow, ID with what they don't tell you.

Yesterday a lady on LibertyForum posted an account of her trying to get her Bush supporting mother to understand what was really going on in this country. The thing that stuck out at me most was when she alerted her mother that we are close to war with Iran. To which her mother replies, "GOOD! We should bomb them."

I don't know how prevalent this point of view is with people, but one thing's for sure, it's too prevalent. In less enlightened moments I wish these people (and ONLY them), would reap the consequences of their sentiments. They're the kind of folks who go into conniptions if you mess up their flower beds, let alone bomb their house into rubble. Unfortunately, on this plane of existence, the innocent suffer right along with the ignorant, and I'm afraid that in this country, scores of millions of caring Americans are going to face the consequences of a stab at world empire gone horribly wrong.

Are you one of those who thinks we'll get away with our unilateral folly with impunity? You know, in the late 30's, Hitler had the world's mightiest army, too. In a scenario of US against the world, the world certainly has recourse, esp. when you consider the fact that we import 54% more than we send overseas. Much of what we import, of course, comes from China. Well, earlier this month Russia and China announced a strategic partnership in a bid to counter expanding Western military and fiscal influences. It makes sense -- Russia has the resources to provide a significant amount of China's energy needs, and China has the financial muscle to guarantee Russian loans. Perhaps more worrisome is the fact that the Russian and Chinese military are having secret joint sessions, and will conduct a massive joint military exercise on Chinese territory this year involving submarines and possibly strategic bombers.

On Feb. 4th, Russia said it had abandoned efforts to tie the rouble's movement closely to the dollar and switched to shadowing both the euro and US currency. Many expect China to follow suit. Please note that the value of the dollar is held up by how many important countries actually use it to buy things. Iran is making noises about pricing its oil in Euros, rather than dollars, thus all the talk about Iranian "weapons of mass destruction," etc. The Iranians aren't a terrorist threat to the United States, they are an economic one. They're also closely tied with Russia. If we mess with Iran, we're edging closer to WWIII. Then all the people who say we should bomb Iran (for no other reason then FOX news told them so) may have a taste of what it's like to get a bomb dropped on them.

There is a way out. In my opinion it has nothing to do with oil, aggression and centuries old empire-building insanity. It has to do with innovation, the thing that made this country great. We live in an abundant universe. The time has come to stop waging war over scarce resources and create some new ones. Some might think I'm talking crazy right now, but how is this any more crazy than bombing a country nearly three times the population of Iraq, that hasn't been weakened by a decade of sanctions, and risking inevitable confrontation with Russia and China, both with nuclear warheads and a combined population of a billion and a half people?

I'm Jody Paulson, and I just thought you should know.