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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Truth, Justice, and the American Way?

Each day brings the latest news story that captures the attention of Americans. Maybe it's the riots in Ferguson, MO, maybe it's another Justin Bieber arrest, or maybe Obama is taking another vacation. Whatever it is we just seem to lap it up like Pavlov's dog, without a thought or care for what our own government is doing to us and others around the world.
  
You see, there is much turmoil in the world we live in. Hatreds of all kinds are fomented, exacerbated, and used by a nefarious and behind the scenes "they." You know, "They did this" or "They are causing the problem." But who is this "they?" We, as Americans, want to, have to, assign blame in order for the world to make sense. When it comes to accidents that we encounter in our daily life we cannot accept that it might have been just that - an accident. Someone has to be at fault, someone will pay. On the political and international scene we do the same thing, however there is a difference - most Americans cannot, simply will not, entertain the possibility that their own country, their own government might be behind some of or even many of the problems that we witness on the evening news. Oh yes, someone is to blame and someone will pay, but it cannot, will not, be us, the United States of America.

I can feel the knees jerking as I type this. "But, Floyd, how can you be so un-American? Where is your patriotism? Don't you love your country? How dare you posit the possibility that our country/government is behind many of the international political problems we face today." Yep, if those knees jerk any harder they'll register on the Richter Scale. Please understand, it brings me no joy to point these things out. I am not gleefully pecking away at my keyboard in an attempt to make any of you feel hatred for our country. But we must be willing to look for, find, and accept the truth of things. As we move inexorably toward another war in the Middle East we must be willing to look at how we came to be here and who truly bears the bulk of the blame.

I want you to watch this video. I just know that some of you are going to think of the producer of the video, and by extension me, as a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy nut. That's OK, I can take the heat. But watch it anyway. After you've watched it I want you to think about what you have seen and learned. Maybe, and this would be a bonus for all of us, maybe you'll actually do some more research on your own and you'll begin to get the bigger picture. Now I know that there are people, groups of people, and even nation-states in this world, who do not like us, for a variety of reasons. But their ability to act on that hatred and the tools necessary to carry out those acts, in the past, were not sufficient to incur our concern. It is like the nerdy kid across the street calling you names, because he doesn't like how big or strong or successful you are. As long as he remains a skinny little nerd and stays on his side of the street he is just a noisy nuisance. But what if one of his neighbors helps him "bulk up" and gives him some tools (weapons) he can use to harm you? What if that neighbor provides the nerd with the means to cross the street and act on his noisy threats? What if you find out that this neighbor was someone you thought you could trust to mind their own business?

I have recently posted on my Facebook page about the involvement of our CIA in creating many of the terror groups that we now feel we need to go to war with. I have been called everything but my mother's child because of this. People who otherwise call themselves my friends have told me I am crazy, because I dare expose the fact that none of the upheaval that is currently going on in the Middle East is an accident or is merely ages old strife that continues in that region. There is an end game, a goal, a reason why these groups are created, trained, armed, and allowed to do what they do. And while we continue to express our righteous anger over beheadings and bombings and mass killings, we seldom, if ever, attempt to get to the root of the problem - the real root. Who keeps arming these terrorists? Who trains them? Are the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the only governments which create and foment unrest for political ends?

Why do we, as Americans, continue to give our government and its agencies a pass when it comes to holding people accountable for the atrocities that continue to occur around the globe? Is your sense of "nationalism" so strong that you just refuse to admit/accept that your tax dollars are being used by your government's agencies to create these problems that must then be "solved" by the same government which created them? That is akin to a fire-fighter setting your house on fire and then telling you what a hero he was for coming to put it out for you. Would you be satisfied with the fire-fighter's explanation? If not then why are you so accepting of your own government's lies, denials, and obfuscations when it comes to the problems it creates?

And before you start telling me about the religious war that is being waged against us and how "those people" have been killing each other for centuries, save your breath. I know and I have heard it before. I am talking about why the current batch of terror groups exist and why, if at all, they may prove a threat to our national security. Those "10th century barbarians" did not make the weapons they are using today. Someone provided those weapons for them. Aren't you even a little curious about who and why? When the old Soviet Union was providing weapons and supplies to the North Koreans, the Chinese, and the North Vietnamese, Americans everywhere were fit to be tied about the USSR's blatant interference in the affairs of other countries. Why then is that same kind of interference OK when we do it? Is it because we are " the good guys?" Is our government and its agencies really the good guys when it arms and trains people who murder anyone who doesn't accept their religious or political views? How much longer will you tolerate this behavior by your government - Democrat administration or Republican?