Myth#5: We are safer after three wars and spending trillions of dollars.

Are we safer after three wars, expansion of many security agencies, spending trillions of dollars, and losing many personal liberties? Is there anything we might be doing that makes people hate us?

We have now fought three wars in the Middle East, spent about $4 trillion in wars, expanded security to about fifty agencies and government departments and created homeland security.   We have caused a quarter of a million people to die and displaced about 8 million people from their homes.   I am sure the world loves us for these accomplishments, but are we safer?

If anyone doubts our persistence in killing, then we have the ongoing drone attacks.  If you want to see how the Arab world views these drone attacks, read this article on Drone Attacks in Arab News.   Again,  I am sure people love us for killing their families, but are we any safer?

And of course we favor countries getting their independence and establishing democracies, so it is ironic that we are one of nine countries (all U.S. buddies) who voted against Palestine in taking the first steps in being recognized as an independent state via the United Nations.  The 138 countries that voted for it and the 41 that abstained (afraid of the U.S.?) of course don’t know anything about creating democracies; they must do it our way to be correct.  Surely, the world will soon recognize the error of their ways, but are we any safer by opposing statehood for Palestine?

Our constitutional rights have been abridged for our safety.  You can be declared an enemy combatant and scheduled for a drone attack without any due process of law … or you can just be put in jail without trial.  The Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act is very similar to McCarthyism were you could be destroyed for real or imagined links to the communist party.  Doesn’t this make you feel safer, by golly!

So, the FBI is saying there is no evidence there is a broader plot in Boston marathon attacks.  First, there is no evidence either way.  I suspect that this was said just to make us feel better.  But, let’s summarize.  We have killed many more innocent people and continue to do so than the innocent people killed on 9/11.  Do we expect people to love us? to help us?  

The way you stop a bomber is from tips from people that are sympathetic to the U.S., not people that have lost friends and families to our military and our drones.  Have we increased the number of people that want to help us by the wars?

How much good could have been done in the Middle East with say $4 trillion dollars.  Let’s see we could have given 80 million people in the Middle East full scholarships to U.S. Universities.  What impact would that have on human rights in the Middle East, in the U.S.  We could have built and operated thousands of hospitals, or Universities, or Walmarts in the Middle East.  In short, we could have improved the lives of millions of innocent people.  But, we had to revenge the deaths of the 2000 people that died at 9/11.  But, funny how we have ignored the 100,000 deaths in the U.S. from gun violence over the last decade, many of them children, much of it gang related.  (NRA keeps us from keeping good records, really, but another blog.)   Who gets vengeance for them as we flounder around with the most powerful and most expensive military force in the history of the world.  

WE HAVE BOUGHT INTO A PLAN THAT WE CAN USE MILITARY FORCE TO CHANGE THE HEARTS OF OUR ENEMY.  I guess we think we can scare them into obedience.  Do you think this makes the U.S. safer?

In any case