re: Today's Tribune Op-Ed cartoon pretty much sums up our COIC*

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Only a fool would think we would use our "largest nuclear weapon stockpile in the world" to stop an invasion by Russia of a country in Eastern Europe

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Only a fool would think we had any business being involved in a Russian invasion of Crimea.

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In fact, only a fool would even mention the possibility as a sign of our strength.

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What is it other than strength?? Only a fool would look at that stockpile as something weak.

OBL stated goals in regards to the US to was to rid the region of US military presence.

No one can look at our Middle East policies since the fifties and say we have done anything of particular benefit to the US's defense. It was just stupid to think we had to be involved in the Middle East to protect oil and nothing demonstrated that better than when Reagan ended price caps on gas and OPEC's ability to create embargos disappeared.

Even Eisenhower questioned the CIA's reasoning for installing the Shah of Iran. Stupid political rhetoric in Congress and from oil companies and CIA power centers pushed him to orchestrate the over throw of the democratically elected Iranian government.

I will take President Eisenhower's word on defense spending. I suppose given your bloated ego you consider yourself a better authority on such things than the most experienced warrior of the twentieth century.

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“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

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“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

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