Guest! Yes! Governments do get away with murder: all the time, ours, theirs, all of them. The relation between government and the people is always a struggle for power and control. And I'll grant you too, that our inconsistent and heavy handed foreign policies have been a main contributor to the political environment and the discontent that has shaped a lot of what goes on today. Anecdotally I had a friend, among several friends who spent three seasons at least on a dig in Israel, tel El Hesi. They had much better relations with the Arab community than the Israeli community and especially Israeli officialdom. They were all quite sympathetic to the Arabs' plight. As a country, were not very good evangelists when it comes to promoting democracy. I don't have THE answer to the situation. It's very complex and I'm a rather simple person. I believe in fair play and the Golden Rule. My government reads that as "Here's a sucker we can easily manipulate. We've got his game book and we can use it against him" (they're wrong). The enemies of this state see my statement as weakness and lack of will. They are wrong.

That genius, Lewis Carroll covered the English cum USA's approach to foreign affairs in his poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter". It really says it all. How are we going to "win the hearts and minds" with that approach?

On our own political scene every election is rigged in some way by both parties and the one that out cheats the other usually wins. I'm really tired of a NO CHOICE choice. Who runs? Millionaires, multimillionaires. Millionaires back by millionaires and by OPM, suckers all. And who is it we are electing? People rich enough and powerful enough to hide all their wrong doing. Why doesn't you neighbor whom you know run for office? Why won't you vote for him or her? "Well, since they aren't a big success they aren't capabable of helping to run the country." Or they have made some mistakes along the way and don't want to go through the public scrutinty of the propaganda machine, the press. I'd much rather vote for someone who can say "Yeah, I've screwed up a few times in my life. I inhaled.
And I've learned from my mistakes. I have some ideas I believe to be pretty good for the country and I'd like to see you get on board with me and see if we can get this mess turned around."

I believe wholeheartedly upon the ideals this nation was founded upon. Founded? Foundation? Fundamentalism? Yep. The Declaration of Independence is one of the greatest and nobelest documents that mankind has ever produced. Let's not subvert it or it's intent. Our constitution with it's clear common sense Bill of Rights, written in the common English of the common people and understandable by all honest people (not just slick lawyers and double-tongued politicos)with a modicum of intelligence is a triumph for freedom. It recognizes that the power of the government lies in the people. It derives it's power from those whom it governs. And yet the jackals we keep electing work tirelessly trying to come up with ways to minimizes and limit that power. They came up with Income Tax (it will never be more than 1% of your income, trust us!). They keep trying to come up with a way to disarm us because, as Chairman Mao stated so eloquently, "All political power flows from the end of a gun barrel." or words to that effect. You may be anti-gun, and that's your choice, but if they ever get the citizen's means of defense, we are all goners. In a totalitarian state the police have little to fear from the public but the public has much to fear from the police. There's the knock on the door at midnight and the "disappeared ones". In a free state the police have it harder because the free citizenry is "on it's honor"and unfortunately not all are honorable. And that is still, by far, the most of us. We obey the laws. The few irresponsible ones, whom we call "criminals" are the only one's who should fear the police (idealy). Freedom isn't free. Government is a necessary evil that needs to be guarded and watched constantly and we as a people have really fallen down on the job. We are in danger because we've grown complacent. We want the Government to do it all for us. That's not American!

As long as I have a breeze up and I'm preaching let me add one more thing. Freedom is not the right or the ability to do anything you want. That is a pernicious idea born of selfishnes and it's name is "license", as in licentous, a blatant disregard for the rules or the norms. Freedom is the ability to do the RIGHT thing, to do one's duty to his neighbor and countryman and to protect our valuable freedoms and rights, to be responsible.

I don't know the answer to all our specific problems but I know the correct answer lies in the heart of those great documents and in the great freedom loving hearts of all honest Americans who believe the same.