PDB Report for Wednesday, July 23, 2008: America and War
By admin | July 23, 2008
America and war
The United States' foreign policy can be likened to the handyman with only one implement in his toolbox … a hammer. For some people a hammer is the solution to whatever broken, busted, or damaged problem comes their way. Coffee table collapses: start banging on it with the hammer. Television screen begins to roll maddeningly: pound on the side of the set with a hammer. Heck, I knew a guy who completely dismantled an automobile with a hammer, butter knife and one set of pliers. The trouble with that approach to issues, of course, is that not every problem can be fixed by banging on it with a hammer. Yet, the hammer is practically the only instrument to be found in America's foreign policy toolbox.
Okay, to be clear here, the hammer is but a metaphor. For all intents and purposes, war is like a hammer … it is a blunt instrument used to pound things into their place. To be completely honest, we Americans act as though war is the solution to whatever problem confronts us. And, in the interest of reality, war-as-elixir-to-whatever-ails-your-foreign-policy didn't start with the Bush administration. It has always been that way. The Bushies have simply taken the concept to its extreme conclusion.
Then again, what can one expect from a nation birthed in a fit of violent revolt with a gun in one hand and a rocket's red glare in the other? I suppose that is how some people come to rely on nothing, but a hammer to fix whatever is broken. They tried it once, it worked and so they can see no reason to bother with a screwdriver or a wrench. Just bang on it long enough and hard enough and eventually something gives. If nothing else, even if the problem doesn't actually get fixed, the banging probably makes the person feel better. It makes the person feel better, so whenever a problem arises they just beat on it with the hammer until relief comes. That is probably what happened to America's foreign policy.
War worked on the British problem, so why not apply it to everything else? In my short lifespan, the United States has marched its military into conflict on no less than nine different occasions. That averages out to one conflict every five years. In that same time period Russia has marched off to war twice and China never! It might be sad, but it is true. For we Americans, there is absolutely no problem that can't be solved with a steady dose of bloody warfare.
But we are nothing if not clever, too clever by a mile, in the way in which we disguise our need to solve every problem with a bomb and a bullet. Whenever we have a problem and intend to employ our singularly violent solution to it, the United States insists that it is marching off to war in order to bring freedom and liberty to some abused society. Indeed, the United States is forever killing people in the name of freedom.
There are literally millions of free, albeit dead, people buried all across the globe and every one of those now dead souls owes their condition to the great American freedom-bringing, problem solving war machine.
I used to hold out hope that my country would eventually grow weary of near constant warfare, but that just doesn't seem likely. If anything, it appears that the United States' problem-solving-through-warfare foreign policy approach is entering into some sort of hyperactive phase. Seriously, the nation is in the midst of two wars, not doing particularly well in either, and it is looking to pick another fight, this time with Iran.
Who knows, maybe it is just the natural manure of things. Maybe a nation that builds its foundation using nothing but a hammer is ultimately doomed to see the hammer as the fix for whatever is broken. Indeed, isn't it obvious to all now, that the only implement in America's foreign policy toolbox is the hammer of war? And, sadly, that probably won't ever change.
Horsey: Afghanistan II… (cartoon)
Is global warming or oil spill cause of penguins' mysterious deaths?
The discovery of hundreds of young penguins washing up along the Brazilian shoreline over the past month has sparked a scientific mystery over what may have led the birds thousands of miles astray.
The so-called Magellanic penguins began appearing in late June. Many of them dead or barely alive, they arrived on beaches all over southeastern Brazil about 2,500 miles from their native southern Patagonia…
"The penguin population is intimately linked to their supplies of food, so this suggests something is happening to the population of fish they eat," said biologist Marcelo Bertellotti at the National Patagonic Center in Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
"It appears the penguins are not finding fish where they normally do, and one reason could be that warming waters and climate change have impacted the fish population."..
Some said a recent oil spill off the coast of Uruguay might have wiped out fish populations there, forcing the penguins to search farther north for food. Others suggested that melting ice in Antarctica had strengthened the northbound Malvinas ocean current this year, trapping younger, more vulnerable penguins.
Whatever the reason, dozens of young penguins continued washing up along the Rio de Janeiro state coast this week, sending wildlife officials on a race to rescue the birds.
They found some covered in petroleum, which had exposed them to hypothermia because the contamination eats away the natural body oils that keep penguins waterproof and warm…
More at McClatchy
Largest US Savings and Loan posts $3.3 billion loss
Washington Mutual Inc., the largest U.S. savings and loan, posted a $3.33-billion (U.S.) second-quarter loss Tuesday as souring mortgages forced it to set aside more money for loan losses.
The thrift's deteriorating health prompted Moody's Investors Service to say it may downgrade Washington Mutual to “junk” status, and shares of the company fell more than 2 per cent.
Excluding a one-time adjustment, Washington Mutual said it lost $3.34 per share – triple the $1.09 per share loss analysts on average expected, according to Reuters Estimates. Retail banking, mortgage and credit card units all posted losses.
Washington Mutual had posted a profit of $830-million, or 92 cents per share, a year earlier…
More at Globe and Mail, Ca
Record number of California homeowners default
A record number of California homeowners defaulted on mortgages last quarter, a real estate information service reported today.
Mortgage servicers recorded "notices of default" on 118,020 homes from April to June, up 125% from the same period in 2007, according to DataQuick Information Systems. That total was the highest since the firm began recording foreclosure statistics in 1992.
Most of those homeowners will likely have their homes repossessed, likely prolonging the current foreclosure crisis…
More at LA Times
UN says 14 million in Horn of Africa need emergency food aid
More than 14 million people across the Horn of Africa are relying on food aid and other assistance to survive a devastating drought and rising food prices, aid officials said Tuesday. The crisis is especially dire in Ethiopia and Somalia, two of the poorest countries in the world.
Many are surviving on one meal a day; others choose between feeding their children and sending them to school.
“This had led to more than belt-tightening,” Mark Bowden, the United Nations' aid chief for Somalia, told journalists in Nairobi, Kenya. “People are reducing their food intake … We have only months before we go into a major crisis.”
Mr. Bowden estimates that 3.5 million people — half of Somalia's population — will need food assistance by the end of 2008. The UN has issued an aid appeal for $637-million for Somalia, but so far has gotten about a third of that.
The worldwide food crisis is threatening to push the number of hungry people in the world toward one billion — despite a recent UN summit pledge to reduce trade barriers and boost agricultural production…
More at Globe and Mail, Ca
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