community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
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How We Got Here
by Sudhama Ranganathan •
Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010 at 1:01 PM
uconnharassment@gmail.com
When any nation finds itself in dire straights it is usually the fault of its leaders. Outside of natural disaster hardly ever are there any other reasons. In fact it’s safe to say hard times for a nation are almost always a result of inept leadership. Whether it’s a single party in control or shared power, crisis are almost always caused by a combination of factors and choices from the top.
So here we are troops fighting in two separate nations, an economy in the tank and a nation more bitterly divided than in a long time. As we head into the last stretch of this election season, we look at the choices before us and have to ask ourselves – how did we get here? Also, we may wonder who was it that got us here? How much could those who got us here really care about the nation at large?
Let’s look at that. Let’s go back say ten years roughly which includes this presidency and the last. It includes a time when the left dominated politics and a period when the right dominated politics. The left has done so for a year and eight months thus far, and the right did so for about six years.
It would be unfair to target one side alone for the lionshare of the blame regarding our current set of circumstances. It would be dishonest and less than true to reality. Both administrations played a role in our current set of circumstances. One helped introduce us to the circumstances by not paying attention to CIA briefings to start. Then, by pushing us into a war with Iraq on evidence already known to be shaky at best, we became embroiled in a bloody treasure depleting war which also depleted our honor in the face of our neighbors in the international community.
We were sold on a bill of goods we are now only really beginning to pull ourselves out of. People still sometimes talk about winning in Iraq. But, when the whole premise was to deal with weapons of mass destruction and topple Saddam Hussein, who we were told had and was developing them, how do we win?
President Bush himself admitted there were no WMD’s. In fact everyone did. We captured Hussein and ha was jailed then executed. So really what’s there to win? We went in based on false facts. We realized there never were any WMD’s. They never posed a threat to us and Hussein had no connection to 9/11. You can’t win a war entered into based on a mistake. It’s a losing proposition all around. The best you can do is pull out. Regarding that the current administration is doing a great job. We are not the world’s police.
There are too many horrible dictators and ruthless governments around the world as much as we would like to save everyone. We just don’t have the funds. Iraq and Afghanistan simultaneously almost ruined US militarily and were economically unsustainable. But the current administration has not pulled out completely and Afghanistan is still raging.
As far as the economy the recession started in late 2007. There is no getting around that. If The Democrats are to blame for where we are now, then Republicans were responsible for where we were just a year and eight months ago, and not heading it off nor getting us out. You simply cannot have it both ways. And what are our choices now? Since they both have not dramatically helped us out of where we are with the exception of the Democrats honoring the Iraq timeline, we should have options.
Yet, here we are ten years on roughly and still the same two choices. We are being told, it’s a year and a half later and everything’s changed, but it’s the same old faces minus the president and vice president. Talk of third parties like, Libertarians, the Green Party and Constitution Party among others have virtually gone unmentioned. Groups claiming to be independent have, as many warned initially, turned out to be non-traditional get out the vote groups for one or the other of the two big tent parties. When we get political commentary it’s from one Democrat and one Republican. Yet, there are more independents than Republicans nationwide. Still, no surprises.
So far it’s like we keep going back and forth like animals being led around by our noses from one side to the next by the same old groups with different color outfits each time around. This year we will no doubt do the same thing, but the question is will we see a real difference, or a return to more of the same? As they are both two different sides of the same coin can we really expect a difference? Can we really expect leadership not motivated by power, money or both? Why haven’t Americans been offered their rightful choices?