Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The Ineptitude of the US Gov’t in Continuing the War in Afghanistan

By Mary MacElveen
October 27, 2009

I just love when another’s prose hits you over the head and where you shout out: “YES!” That is exactly the response I gave after reading Paul Craig Robert’s piece: US Joins the Ranks of Failed States. So, much so, I had to spread it far and wide using Twitter and Facebook.com as you will see below. My suggestion to you is, READ IT!

US Joins Ranks Of Failed States: http://tinyurl.com/yh6yfoo Again, Paul Craig Roberts hits another home run! This is a MUST READ!!!

The other day, I wrote a column addressing war vs. healthcare titled: Baghdad bombings: We are a warrior nation instead of a healing nation citing the total amount of money it has cost so far in running these wars in the Middle East. But, thanks and I mean, thanks to Paul Craig Roberts, he breaks those numbers down further and will clearly show why we cannot afford healthcare. Example as cited in his eye-popping article: “According to reports, the US Marines in Afghanistan use 800,000 gallons of gasoline per day. At $400 per gallon, that comes to a $320,000,000 daily fuel bill for the Marines alone. Only a country totally out of control would squander resources in this way.” Exactly, how are these wars in our own national and even economic interests when we are spending money hand over many fists in order to pay for them?

In referencing a past column of mine which is no longer on-line: “You Don’t Defend America with a Lie” written back in May of 2003 I wrote: “A strong country means a country that is economically solvent, instead of insolvent. We have basically allowed a lie to put us in the red.” The lie I speak of is the Iraq War.

In addressing the ‘right war’; Afghanistan if any war is a right war, it too is draining us. First, we are losing our soldiers, innocent Afghanis and yes our fiscal treasure. We simply cannot afford this war.

To the war-hawks of this nation: Exactly how many years do you want to spend fighting this war? One year, two years, five years or a war without end? If you are in support of fighting a perpetual battle, then, hawks, you are fools! And some of you call yourselves fiscal conservatives. To that I add: Hah!

On September 17th, 2009, I came across an article on Truthout.org titled: Afghanistan: Where Empires go to Die. Alone, that title speaks for itself. No further words are needed given any nation’s history fighting a war in Afghanistan. But, according to this article: “The United States Empire is following a long line of empires and conquerors that have met their end in Afghanistan. The Median and Persian Empires, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, Turks, Mongols, British and Soviets all met the end of their ambitions in Afghanistan.” I highly recommend to all that they read this insightful piece.

Yet, some want the United States to stay the course in Afghanistan. History is indeed repeating itself even thinking we can win. We are sending our men and women into a meat-grinder as our country’s fiscal reserves are facing the same fate.

Think of this, we are printing dollar-after-dollar to fund these wars, borrowing handily from China and quite frankly handing all of them over to the defense industry. Those blood suckers are draining we the people.

Some will scream of the cost of healthcare; yet say nothing and I mean nothing when it comes to the cost of these endless wars. Do they think that at one point, we can defeat say Al Qaeda and the Taliban where they will throw up their arms and say: “You won!” at some point? Nonsense, this is a major blow-back just waiting to happen. Then again, we are already feeling the financial blow-back by throwing our good money down the drain in supporting these wars.

Again, reverting back to my 2003 column, I wrote: “should a greater threat occur, how will we pay for it?” That threat can come in many ways and perhaps it already has when we as a country cannot even afford basic healthcare for all. What of any new enemy that looms large on the horizon who can attack us given the right set of circumstances? Are they just laying in wait as we spend our selves out of control with these two wars going? Perhaps and more importantly, yes.

What of the millions we displaced in Iraq? Are a good number of them just waiting their turn as we turned their homeland into a hell on Earth? Just something to think about.

What of the devastation we may face should another attack occur within our borders or a series of attacks? A nightmare scenario would be if a nuclear plant was attacked. I have addressed this in the past and where the casualty rate will be higher than the casualty rates of 9/11. But since some would rather focus on the costs: Exactly how would we pay for said nightmare scenario or a series of attacks?

I will end this piece with a quote made by Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (former Chief of Staff to the former Secretary of State Colin Powell) who once said of the “ineptitude” of the US government: “If something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious. Something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major city or a pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence.” He opined this as he was interviewed on CNN's "Late Edition" on November 20th, 2005.

This ineptitude of fighting years-upon-years in Afghanistan is driving all of us off the financial cliff. $320,000,000 for a daily fuel bill in Afghanistan: How many uninsured Americans could be seen by a doctor using that figure?

I would like to add an addendum to this piece: In posting my article, I read where we just lost eight U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan today where October has been one of the deadliest months. How many more shall the US gov’t kill should we fight a war without end? Enough!

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Baghdad bombings: We are a warrior nation instead of a healing nation


By Mary MacElveen
October 26, 2009

We say we are a nation at war, but how can we actually say that upon reading that suicide bombers took the lives of 147 Iraqis and where 500 more were wounded? We the United States of America had a causal affect in these lone bombings since we destabilized this sovereign country.

As I have said from day one when we launched “Shock and Awe”, the Iraqi people have undergone a 9/11 event on a daily basis for six years without any end in sight. Through our own actions at the hands the previous Bush administration, we became the terrorists of an innocent people. When will it stop? We who voted for President Obama were hoping and praying for a real change, yet, the killings go on. They are not only felt in Iraq, but are consistently being felt in Afghanistan and as reports are filed; Pakistan.

How can we exactly say we are a nation at war when we are not suffering from daily attacks? Yes, our military and their families do, but not we the people. We would rather focus on the ‘Balloon Boy’, Michael Jackson, Paris Hilton and the list goes on. We cannot even imagine the life of an Iraqi citizen or an Afghani citizen. Their lives are a daily hell on Earth.

While I am not a subscriber online to “The New Yorker” I was able to pick out key points in Jane Mayer’s article “The Predator War”. In it, Mayer writes: “reports of fatal air strikes in Pakistan emerge every few days. According to a new study by the New America Foundation, the number of drone strikes has gone up dramatically since Obama became President. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the defense contractor that manufactures the Predator and its more heavily armed sibling, the Reaper, can barely keep up with the government’s demand. With public disenchantment mounting over the U.S. troop deployment in Afghanistan, many in Washington support an even greater reliance on Predator strikes.”

Just think about it: You are an innocent Pakistani family who had no part in 9/11 and a bomb comes crashing through your home through a predator bomb delivered by a drone. You are not Al Qaeda, but a family trying to get by in this arduous world filled with war and violence.

I wrote exactly the same way after the launch of “Shock and Awe” as it affected the Iraqi people.

Yes, ‘Tenthers’ you are paying for wars without end, yet gripe when it comes to healthcare. You cite where providing healthcare for all is unconstitutional: What of perpetual wars?

In reading my Sunday edition of Newsday, I came upon a photo where a group of protesters were holding a sign stating: “Our “10” Amendment Means NO!! To Gov’t Healthcare!!” I would love to pose the question to these protestors: What of warfare since we have been at war in the Middle East since 2001? Oops, I forgot about the Iraqi War during the first Bush administration and the sanctions during the Clinton administration. When exactly will we exit this region and put a stop to our footprint in this region? After all, we the taxpayers are paying for these perpetual wars without any end in sight.

In a tweet on Twitter.com, I posed this question yesterday: “GOP say Dems health care plans too costly: http://tinyurl.com/ygzutqx What price war?: http://www.costofwar.com/ $924 billion!” Tenthers, where is your angst at that amount of money being spent on wars? You gripe at the amount to be spent on healthcare, what of war?

Just before the previous Bush administration launched “Shock and Awe” those of us who protested this ongoing war in Iraq were not listened to, yet, ‘tea-baggers’ who oppose real reform in healthcare are? Our morals are skewed if we can see merit in being a warrior nation as opposed to a healing nation.

Author’s email address is xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Friday, October 23, 2009

A change of heart: Sex offenders who kill deserve the death penalty

By Mary MacElveen
October 24, 2009

This will be one of my shortest op-ed pieces within nine years of writing them, but I must come clean. In as much as I say that I am pro-life where I have stated I am pro-life from cradle-to-grave, I must, I must take back that mantle especially when it comes to child sexual predators. These monsters will at times take the lives of innocent victims, namely children. Our precious children gone before the promise of their lives not realized to all of us.

If a writer is to be honest with their readers, then they must be honest with themselves first and foremost. Over the years I have read up on pedophilia and have written of it. There are no words to adequately describe my feelings towards these predators. If I had to choose one word, it would be ‘hate’. That word at times seems tame.

In delving into the heinous world of pedophilia, one cannot take enough hot showers to clean themselves from reading story-upon-story of children raped and murdered by demons. I want these demons dead. I cannot stomach their apologists or those who try, try to explain away their deviant behavior. How dare they?! Let them face a child who has survived a predator or a parent whose child was taken by one.

I do not want these demons out within our neighborhoods being told to register under Megan’s Law, I want them locked up. Is that so much to ask of our stupid politicians who think this is the best way of dealing with sexual offenders? In doing so, it is their abdication of judicial responsibility to deal with these predators. They expect us to deal with them instead of them. I have stated that from the get-go, yet, yet no one listens.

Tonight, I had to put out a tweet on Twitter.com and my Facebook.com page this entry: “My tears and anguish go out to Diena Thompson whose daughter Somer was killed by a child predator: http://tinyurl.com/yzw7g4a. Fry him!”

It is my sincere hope that you sit and listen to Diena Thompson openly grieve fully knowing that her beloved Somer will not come back to her again and murdered at the hands of a predator. Whose rights should we as a society be protecting? The rights of the victim(s) or the rights of the predator(s)?

Somer Thompson and children just like her namely Jessica Lunsford will not be coming back to their loved ones or to us and it is time we stand up for them. We as a society must demand of our politicos that if you sexually harm a child and are declared a level three sex offender, you are never getting out of prison. If you kill a child in the act of any sexual act, you will face the death penalty. It is the least we can do for those most innocent amongst us; our children.

So, I guess I am not pro-life from cradle-to-grave; but justice for the most innocent amongst us rings louder in my ears. I hope that you hear them too.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Email sent to Suffolk Cty., NY politicians regarding mass transportation

To My Elected Officials, October 22, 2009

At the bottom of this email to all of you, I will name all of you whom I elected to serve the people. I fully believe that transportation within Suffolk County, NY is key to getting people where they need to go. I am not speaking of cars or other forms of personal transportation, but mass transportation. First due to the economy, many cannot afford to own a vehicle, fill its tanks and pay for the insurance. How are they supposed to get from point A to point B? By bus? I invite all of you to look over the Suffolk County bus schedule and see if there are buses for you to take to your work or those who work for you.

As you will see, NO buses run on Sundays or after dark and people do work on Sundays and after 6 PM throughout the week. So, how are they supposed to get to and from work or shopping for that matter? This is where I wish that politicians would place themselves in our shoes for at least a week to see the burdens we face.

I can attest to the fact that being an epileptic who does not drive for medical reasons, being without personal transportation is akin to being a prisoner in one’s home. I am at the mercy of cabs for the most part and let me tell you as a cashier at Stop and Shop who makes $7.50 per hour the fare to my job costs $8 dollars per fare. Thankfully there is a bus that I can take, but it is not frequent enough and only costs me $1.50 to get there. However, it does take me ten-to-fifteen minutes to walk to my bus-stop and after being on my feet for hours, walking is the last thing I want to do.

If I am scheduled to work on a Sunday or at nights, I am out of luck and I am then at the mercy of Lindy’s Cab Company. How would you like a life like that? I have had friends and family say to me: “Call me if you need a ride” and while I am grateful, it is NOT their responsibility to get me to and from work. It is mine.

Do you finally get it now of the hardships we who do not drive for medical or economic reasons face? This is our world and welcome to it.

As a former political activist who routinely receives emails asking exorbitant amounts of moneys to donate to this campaign or that, it sickens me when I have to plead to all of you to help me get from point A to point B by bus. At times, I feel as if no one is listening to my pleas by only wish money sent to all of you in order to help you get elected or re-elected. Well my wallet is closed shut!

All I am asking or rather pleading for all of you to do is to help me and others like me get to work or shopping and liberate us from our prisons when we have no way of getting to where we want to go. That is what we elected all of you to do. It is time you serve we the people and not the other way around!

Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen

Email sent to:

Congressman, Tim Bishop
County Executive, Steve Levy
County Legislator, Dan Lasquadro
Councilwoman, Jane Bonner
Assemblyman, Marc Alessi
State Senator, Ken LaValle