The recent Revolution in Egypt is not complete. The Army still has control of the country and it is yet to be seen if they will give in to the demands of the people that fomented the revolution. This will take time and we will see sooner than later if the people of Egypt can be patient. Change comes in increments. We can only hold our collective breath and hope that change does come to these brave citizens of Egypt.
Meanwhile, Americans are forgetting that our situation is not that different than the situation in Egypt. We too are under the control of forces that don't have the majority of Americans at heart. The truth is that the Pentagon is one of the key players in our supposed "Democracy". The Executive branch is almost subservient to military. Between the lobbyists that represent the Military-Industrial-Complex and the right wing that is in power in the House, the President seems to be between a rock and the hard place.
The United States is responsible for 47% of the world's military spending. We have bases in approximately 800 nations across the planet. Just what is our aim is all of this while our economy falters and becomes impotent?
American exports are falling to an all-time low. Every year the United States manufactures less and less as our industries are outsourced by trans-national corporations to countries that can make these goods cheaper albeit with less quality. Our free trade agreements have been catastrophic, driving illegal immigration from South America to the United States in droves. Columbian coffee now costs almost $12 a can. What did we gain from that Columbian agreement?
We are involved in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and a host of other countries. The recent military appropriations bill was the largest in American history. Just where are the American people while this is taking place. The simple fact is that most Americans don't know what is happening. The co-opted mass media hardly mentions these events, and if they do, it's on the back pages.
The truth of the matter is that we have no free press in America except the publications that are read by the more educated citizens that are well aware of what is happening but few try to educate their less educated friends and neighbors. We seem to have a fear in this country of being labeled "dissidents." The storm of patriotism after 9/11 is still with us and is partly responsible for the American Military to believe it can run amuck with no civilian oversight.
We have fleets that are as large as the fleet's that operated in World War II, except with much deadlier weapons systems. Whether or not people in the United States know it, this is where most of our income goes to instead of being used to rebuild American infrastructure.
Meanwhile, with the largest military on Earth, we still can't stop the Somali pirates hijacking American oil tankers in the Indian sea. The last tanker they hijacked accounted for 20% of our imports of oil. Does that explain the gas prices going up this month? Just who is the military working for anyway?
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