Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:57 pm
Striking fear in the minds of human beings is a powerful motivational tactic that criminals and terrorists use for evil purposes. America’s number one criminal and terror organization, the Republican Party, used fear-mongering during the Bush administration to incite Americans into relinquishing their freedoms and supporting unprovoked war against Muslim countries that happen to have oil resources. The presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Willard Romney, is following George W. Bush’s fear-mongering agenda and parroting Republicans’ favorite campaign topic that under a Democratic President, Americans are not safe, and unless they elect another Republican as president, America is doomed.
Yesterday in San Diego at a veterans museum Romney said the “world is not safe” under President Obama and charged that the president has weakened the military. The event’s organizers asked Romney not to say anything political because it is their annual event, but Willard just could not help himself from lying to frighten veterans in attendance. Besides lying, Romney exposed his agenda if he wins the White House of using all taxpayer dollars to enrich the defense industry and put an end to spending on social needs. Romney said that there are two courses America can follow and one is “shrink our military smaller and smaller to pay for our social needs,” or “commit to preserve America as the strongest military in the world, second to none, with no comparable power anywhere in the world.”
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As it just so happens, America has the strongest military in the world and there is no comparable power in terms of technology, training, and defense spending, but facts mean nothing to Republicans and especially Romney. It is unknown where Romney came up with the notion that America is following the pathway of Europe by shrinking the military to support social needs, but much of what Romney says comes from unknown sources. Perhaps he has golden tablets and a special seer stone to enlighten him, but that is another story. President Obama proposed reducing the size of the military following the end of the Iraq war and when troops begin leaving Afghanistan after 2014, but it is reasonable in light of having two less wars to fight and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates agrees with the President. Romney and his Bush-foreign policy team intend on going to war with Iran if he wins in November, and his lust for war would have credence if he ordered his five sons to be the first boots on the ground.
Romney told the veterans that American might is necessary not “so that we just win wars, but so we can prevent wars.” He continued that “a strong America is the best deterrent to war that has ever been invented,” but his assertion, like everything Willard says is fallacious and the Bush administration is all the proof America needs. American military might has no equal now just like it had no equal during the Bush years, but it did not prevent war criminals Bush and Cheney from invading two sovereign nations to change regimes and steal oil. The problem with cowards that have access to the world’s most powerful military is that for pure bravado and intimidation, they tend to start wars, not prevent them. Republicans clamored for America to start a war with Iran, invade Libya, and recently to get involved militarily in Syria.
During his speech, Romney enumerated the threats to America after he said, “I wish I could tell you that the world is a safe place today. It is not.” Willard listed Iran, Pakistan, China, Russia, Venezuela, and Mexico as threats to America and it was surprising he failed to add Japan, France, England, and Germany as well as all of Africa and Australia as likely targets of Republican aggression. Most Americans understand the world is not a safe place, but the biggest threat to world peace is a Republican with a powerful military and a list of countries to invade. By contrast, President Obama marked Memorial Day noting that “Americans are not fighting and dying in Iraq. After a decade under the dark cloud of war, we can see the light of the new day on the horizon.” Americans are weary of war that has cost thousands of lives, tens-of-thousands of disabled combat veterans, and trillions of dollars, and the idea of an era without war is appealing; except to Republicans.
America’s greatest era of prosperity has been during times of peace; not war. Dwight D. Eisenhower presided over the rise of the great middle class by spending on infrastructure and education; not war. However, Republicans never met a war they didn’t like, and with the world’s most powerful military at their disposal, no country is safe and especially if it is a Muslim country. Romney’s contention that under President Obama the “world is not safe” is a repeat of the 2008 campaign and a favorite assertion of Republicans since Ronald Reagan was president. The truth is that the President’s diplomacy and measured use of force has made the world a safer place primarily because he avoided using the military might at his disposal unless it was necessary, and it has won America a measure of the respect Bush lost by invading Iraq and Afghanistan. Romney’s close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his belief that Mormons are latter day American-Israelis has been the impetus for his plans for war with Iran.
There is little doubt America’s military is the most powerful in the world, and as America spends more on defense than the next nine countries combined it is fallacious to imply President Obama presides over a declining American military dominance in the world. But fallacy is Willard Romney’s stock and trade and if his lies can frighten Americans into believing they are in danger, then he assumes he earned their votes. Most Americans are concerned with providing their families with food, healthcare, and housing, and not whether the military is five, ten, or fifty times as powerful as any other country, but there is Willard, frightening veterans to promote more defense spending while pushing vouchers for their healthcare and cuts to food stamps, Medicare and Social Security. Romney contends a powerful American military is the best deterrent to war, but it depends entirely on who sits in the White House.
George W. Bush had the most powerful military in the world and in eight years he started two wars, caused thousands of soldier’s deaths, killed hundreds-of-thousands of Muslim civilians, and wasted trillions of dollars, and made the world an extremely dangerous place in the process. Willard Romney with the world’s most powerful military will repeat the Iraq and Afghanistan disasters because he is, after all, just George W. Bush with magic underwear.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
