Americans tolerate a costly global national-security apparatus in part because they believe the country would be economically vulnerable without it. After all, we use resources from all over the world – oil being only the most prominent example. What if an embargo cut us off from supplies?Read the rest of TGIF: Trading for Security here.
Proudly delegitimizing the state since 2005
"Aye, free! Free as a tethered ass!" —W.S. Gilbert
"All the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and . . . the State should be abolished." —Benjamin Tucker
"You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." —James Madison
"Fat chance." —Sheldon Richman
Some interesting quotes from this article about insurgents in Iraq...
ReplyDeleteAbu al Moheeb compared the Baathists' fight to that of George Washington, a figure revered in the US for leading America's uprising against the British in the Revolutionary War, before becoming the first president of the United States.
"We have the right to resist foreign occupation," he said. "If George Washington were alive today he would support us in our right to resist, he led a national liberation movement."
Attacking US forces in Iraq would remain the primary goal of the insurgents, Abu al Moheeb said, although he admitted that with US troops spending more time on heavily fortified bases instead of out patrolling, that would be difficult. He also described the Baathist insurgent forces as "weaker today" than had once been the case, saying they now lacked vital foreign support.
"The first target is the American soldiers," he explained. "They are occupation forces. It's not because they are Americans, we respect America and its people. But any American who dresses in a military uniform and comes to invade our country is a legitimate target for us – that goes for any occupation forces, American, British, anyone." [emphasis mine]