Recently, gas prices in Worth County went over $4 per gallon for the first time ever. On Wednesday, we paid $38 to fill up our car. Prices of other goods are going up as well. There are chronic shortages of certain goods due to supply chain issues. Don’t get me wrong; most of us would condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it is awfully convenient that it happened at this time so that President Joe Biden can find someone to blame for his failures.
I voted for Biden. I believed him to be more competent than Trump, but now, I am not so sure. More people have died from COVID under Biden than Trump. And now, we are seeing a deadly spiral towards a nuclear conflict with Russia and/or China. So much for Barack Obama’s promise back in 2008 that he would keep us out of “dumb wars.”
Ever since around 1920 or so, the elites have carried out a war against normal people, starting with mass foreclosures in the 1920’s, following by the shuttering of rural schools and mass consolidations. This destroyed the lifeblood of our communities. Next came the shuttering of our trains, which gutted our local economy even more. Then came another round of foreclosures in the 1980’s; then came the shipping of jobs overseas to Mexico and China starting in the 1990’s.
This is the same mentality we are seeing today. We’re expected to make all the sacrifices so that we can “stick it to the Russians.” The death spiral to our economy will get even worse if China invades Taiwan, oil goes through the roof again, and gas goes up to $8-10 per gallon or so.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. The fact that Russia invaded Ukraine, when there were diplomatic ways of resolving the conflict, does not justify the escalatory pressure that the US and NATO have engaged against Russia ever since the collapse of Communism and the dissolution of the USSR. And it certainly doesn’t justify the tanking of our economy and the driving up of gas prices and fertilizer prices just to engage in virtue signaling.
I believe in the Ten Commandments. In 1990, Secretary of State James Baker made verbal assurances that if Germany reunified and joined NATO, it would not expand eastwards to Russia’s border. The fact that no formal deal with Russia was struck does not excuse the US going back on its word to Russia and pushing for the eastward expansion of NATO to Russia’s border.
The tragic attacks of 9/11 were a golden opportunity for the US to remake the world in its image. We enjoyed a lot of support and goodwill in the months after those barbaric attacks. But instead of creating a more peaceful world, the US instead engaged in a war of choice against Iraq which turned out to be the worst foreign policy disaster in US history. Instead of learning the lessons from this conflict, Barack Obama doubled down by turning our war in Afghanistan into a 20 year occupation that accomplished nothing but the squandering of US lives and trillions of taxpayer dollars. Now, Joe Biden is doubling and tripling down on these failed policies.
Joe Biden can virtue signal all he wants. But what good will it do if all our farms go broke due to lack of fertilizer and lack of parts and supplies and the inability to buy tractors or pickups due to high prices or supply chain issues? What good will it do if we can’t drive to work because filling up a tank of gas skyrockets to $80? What good will it do to “stick it to the Russians” if we can’t buy food due to supply chain issues, or we can’t afford it anymore? These policies, if unchecked, will create another big crash. If we are not all incinerated by nuclear weapons first.
All of this is being done to feed the beast known as the Military Industrial Complex that President Dwight Eisenhower tried to warn us against. While all other government agencies are expected to live within their means, the Military Industrial Complex is allowed to operate with impunity, without checks of any kind.
This is not an indictment of our veterans or our servicepeople. We support them, and will continue to do so. This is an indictment of policymakers of both parties, who squabble like two year olds while happily jumping on the gravy train that supporting the Military Industrial Complex yields. It is telling that Nancy Pelosi happily voted to increase defense spending during Donald Trump’s presidency even as she was wringing her hands over what a horrible person Donald Trump was.
It is telling that Henry Kissinger, widely regarded on the left as a war criminal, is making more sense on the Russia/Ukraine conflict that Joe Biden is. He is calling for an end to it. When you are to the right of someone like Henry Kissinger, it should give you pause.
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