Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Last ime Issues, this time FACTS...

I'm an International Relations major so I know something on this subject. First, with the end of the Cold War, it was a given that there would be a sizeable reduction in the military and defense spending. This would have been the case, Republican or Democrat. Also, revisionist history says we won the Cold War because we out spent the former Soviet Union. So what does that mean? Well a popular term that still carries some weight today is "imperial overreach". If you study modern history back to the Peace of Westphalia from the 1400's on to the present, you will see an interesting "rising and fallling" of the major "great powers" or nation-states. An interesting factor worth studying is the relationship between miltary might vs an economic powerhouse. The key is balance. It doesn't matter how strong your military is, if you don't have an economy to support it, you will ultimately decline. Look at the former Soviet Union. They were a military superpower but an economic second world (and argueable a third world) country. What was Great Britain 100 years ago? The sun never set on the British empire....so the saying went. What is Britain now? They owned 2/3rds of the world at one time. Now they are nothing.

There is a very, very good book (although technically hard to read) called "The Rising of Falling of the Great Powers" by Paul Kennedy. He is British but this book became required reading for Clinton's presidential cabinet. Go read it.

Now, do not assume I am Democrat by any means. I am not. I am Republic and favor a strong military but I am also cautious about imperial overreach. I think we find ourselves in that situation today.

My main quival with the Iraq war is that we were lead into war under false pretenses. There WAS some question whether Iraq really had any substantial WMD's. Bush discarded all dissenting opinions and followed through unilaterally on a PREMPTIVE strike. That is unprecedented. There was no international community behind us nor was there any imminent threat on National Security. Consequently, Bush has upset the "BALANCE OF POWERS" in the region and has created a power vaccume. Iraq may have been evil but it kept in check Iran. And Saudi Arabia relied on the US for protection. Now that threat is gone and we are no longer needed and ironically enough, despised.

Now I'm not saying I would never have supported the Iraq war under any circumstances. I'm just saying we rushed to war and were mislead by our President. To me, there is a huge credibility gap no matter what the outcome in Iraq may be. That is why I am voting for Kerry and for a Democrat for the first time in my life. Besides, I think Kerry is centrast enough despite claims of being the liberals liberal. I actually think we need a guy who "flip flops". What is so noble about Bush's steadfastness??? You can be so darn convinced you are right and be wrong. He never second guessed anything.

Now the damage is done. We have no choice but see the Iraq war through. Iraq is sitting on the world's biggest oil reserves. As gas approaches $2.25 a gallon to fill up yer car, don't think the situation is ever going to get any better later on down the line. America's dependence on oil won't go away until we turn back into the stone age. So we have no choice but to protect our huge consumer economy. Hey, I like my fast cars too.

But sooner or later perhaps the Iraq situation had to be dealt with. In my classes in school back in 1994 as we studied the aftermath of the cold war, America's next big threat was seen to be the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism. I guess we are dealing with that today. It's a complex political world in a chaotic arena of nation-states and even though nothing is black and white, I will say that Bush is very unintellectual. I don't think he's stupid, but he puts no faith in political theory and instead relies more upon his religious convictions. And although George W's personal religious morals may be noble (and much needed following the Clinton administration) I think his religious ideology clouds his judgment. At least Clinton was intellectual enough and well read enough to see the world in a secular vein.

Kerry is the better man. That's my two cents.

No matter what, vote your conscience.

Peace