"Where are the French?" Uncle Chet asked from across the table where we were having coffee.
"The who?"
"Weren't they supposed to run this new war, Sarkozy in the lead plane? We were going to hand this off to our European allies, but now, it's American cruise missiles in the air, CIA advisers on the ground, almost $700 million pumped out of the Treasury so far."
"So far as we know," I said.
"And I'd like to know where that money's going," he said. "When we spend $700 million, it doesn't disappear; it just goes from public hands to private hands."
"To stockholders in the arms dealers," I said.
"And oil companies," he said. "War runs on oil, and oil runs on war; the two go hand-in-hand. Why else do we park our Navy in the Red Sea, if not to act as an escort service for Exxon and BP?"
"Got to have that gas, and not at $4 a gallon."
"So another war over oil," he said. "And I could almost go for this one, except for our miserable track record."
"I'm surprised to hear you say that," I said.
"Have you noticed that every war we get into lately seems to start the same way?" he said.
"How's that?" I glanced out the window at a pile of firewood that needed to be stacked and covered before it rained tomorrow.
"There's always a militant billionaire," he said. "A dirt bag, the focus of evil for the Western world, who's got a big cache of weapons and an army that terrorizes the locals."
"That sounds right."
"You can't have a war without a villain, so we always find one, one we can loath for all the murdering, raping, gassing, lying, cheating, torturing he's done over years when he was our ally."
"Sorry, Moammar, Osama, Noriega, those days are done," I said.
"And once we cross them off the list, they're dead meat, and any move to defend them or question the new war is akin to treason."
"You're either with us or against us," I said. "Isn't that the Bush Doctrine?"
"In the last 20 years, we've been at war with Saddam, Osama, Saddam again and now Moammar, while on the other side we've had our allies, the lovers of democracy, the freedom fighters, the young have-nots fighting desperately because they're fed up with the ruling class."
"But why is it exploding now?" I said.
"Rising food prices, expanding Internet," Uncle Chet said. "The key is the Internet, a way for people to share their misery and organize. We'd never have seen anything in Tunisia or Egypt, let alone Libya, if not for Facebook and Twitter."
"They're changing the map," I said.
"My question is how do we act as the world turns toward economic democracy? Do we keep coddling dictators as they're playing along, then turn on them as soon as there's a hint of rebellion? Or do we stand against the autocrats, sultans and corporate bosses, who've rigged the economic system, bled the middle class and filled the world's prisons?"
"Or we could just stack the wood," I pushed my chair back.
"Or we could tell the truth, act ethically," Uncle Chet said. "We could decline to dine with the Saudi king. We could refuse to back any regime that isn't popularly elected and where wealth is hoarded by the few. And we could refuse to attack, intervene, blow up anyone unless the United Nations agrees to act in concert to start and finish wars, with everyone chipping in."
"We could, but I don't think we will."
"No, we'll just keep finding bogeymen and firing missiles, sending troops off until the rebellion reaches our own shores."
"That'll work as long as they can get volunteers to `be-all-you-can-be,"' I said.
"That's why they got rid of our manufacturing jobs," Uncle Chet said. "Now, for a lot of us, that is all you can be. Want a steady job, with benefits, in the USA? Just sign here, then slip into that uniform."
Cooperstown Bureau Reporter Tom Grace is traveling with his Uncle Chet, who he says is imaginary. Grace's column appears every other week. For more of his columns, visit www.thedailystar.com/tomgrace.
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April 5, 2011
There's still one job we haven't shipped overseas
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
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Upstate theme parks offered affordable thrills
I saw in the news last week that Disney theme parks are raising admission prices to almost $100 a person. Children (who Uncle Walt considers 10 and under) are now $86 a day.
Continued ... - Getting creative with gifts for grads
- Safety Patrol D.C. visits never get old
- My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
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Upstate theme parks offered affordable thrills
- Cary Brunswick
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Book-banning has a tendency to backfire
So what does the 1960s game show ``What's My Line'' got to do with the Bloomsday festivities occurring in Dublin, Ireland, this week? Surprisingly, there is a link.
Continued ... - Envisioning a world without terror
- We've become our own worst enemies
- Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
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Book-banning has a tendency to backfire
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
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- Mark Simonson
- Rick Brockway
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Don't play around with snappers
The other day, I was driving along Route 205 between Mount Vision and Hartwick. Suddenly, I had to swerve out of my lane to miss a huge snapping turtle. It was crossing from a large swamp on the left to some higher ground on the other side of the road.
- Emmons Pond Bog is pretty easy to enjoy
- Fishing has gotten a lot more complex
- Waterfalls are even better when you keep them to yourself
- Kids have sparkle in their eyes
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Don't play around with snappers
- Sam Pollak
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Justice Dept., IRS abuses worth screaming about
"If this had happened while a Republican was president, the liberal media would be screaming."
Continued ... - THIS WEEK'S POLL
- Using time off in the worst way possible
- Terror lives on, and there's no end in sight
- Remembering the glory of their times
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Justice Dept., IRS abuses worth screaming about
- William Masters
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
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Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
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Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
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Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
