Yesterday I had the occasion to talk with a colleague who had just returned from a trip to her homeland country abroad. She hadn't been back to her homeland for seven years approximately, and she was just amazed to hear the derisive comments about America made by her family and friends while there, who could not believe that she could be happy at all living here. And what has brought all this about.
Well, we all know that it has been seven years of arrogance, imperialism, pre-emptive wars, human rights abuses, erosion of civil liberties, and a foreign policy based on the interests of the largest corporations of America.
And, we can't even pay our bill to the United Nations, so that peacekeeping forces can be kept afloat to do the vital work of reducing conflicts in the world. (But why should we care, when we knowingly stirred the conflicts in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East by pre-emptively entering Iraq and waging a war there that any Junior High student of history could have predicted would result in humanitarian disaster and major sectarian strife and conflict.)
Our disregard of other nations by the bill we continue to refuse to pay to the United Nations, that has now added up to 2 Billion dollars, only continues to tarnish the view other nations now have of our Country. The neglect has been going on for years, and it is shameful. Who likes a scofflaw, much less a scofflaw nation. But, then again, how can we pay our bills when we have allowed ourselves to become such a debtor nation, in debt to China - in large part because of the War in Iraq, now being estimated at 3 Trillion dollars. Owing the UN, in debt to China, the spiraling cost of the War in Iraq. What financial degradation are we in!
For a description of the significance of our not paying our UN Bills for peacekeeping forces, see an article republished in Common Dreams today. Haider Rizvi, "US Debts Hurting UN Peacekeeping, Say Analysts", Monday, March 3, 2008 by One World.net
http://www.commondreams.org/...
For a discussion on the 3 Trillion Dollar War, hear the NPR discussion by Linda Bilmes on Our 'Three Trillion Dollar War'. Linda Bilmes is Co-Author, with Joseph E. Stiglitz of "The Three Trillion Dollar War", W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright © 2008
http://www.npr.org/...
And what have we begot: world shame and scorn. For shame. Our own shame and humiliation and guilt.
How can we reclaim our national dignity in the world? We can: Stop torturing, restore human rights (like Habeas Corpus), stop spying on citizens, restore civil liberties, stop stealing elections, end corporate fleecing of world resources, end renditions, stop spending what we can't afford and begin to pay our bills, end pre-emptive wars once and for all, avoid the creation of humanitarian disasters and contribute properly to ameliorating humanitarian disasters from other causes, take care of our nation's need for health care and opportunity properly and contribute properly to the world's greater well being and safety. Wouldn't it be nice to hold our national head high again?
Let's start by ending the War in Iraq and building the public will to demand it, and make it the campaign issue up and down the ticket it deserves to be. How wise the Edwards are to have joined the Iraq/Recession Campaign, 2008, and we should follow their lead in helping this worthy campaign.
Karita Hummer
Edwards Democrat