Republicans and Fear

 

PFC Jones with Mine-Detector. Want to talk about fear?
PFC Jones with Mine-Detector. Want to talk about fear?

W.J. Astore

Why, looky here, another article in the New York Times that examines the Republican “hawks” posturing for a presidential run in 2016.  As the article blurb states, “Republicans are scrambling to outmuscle one another on national security issues.”  It’s all about looking tough and calling for more boots on the ground in battles against ISIS and terror everywhere.

Here’s the money quote:

“There’s a lot of fear out there,” said Katon Dawson, a former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, noting that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had become a regular topic of discussion at his regular breakfast spot in Columbia, the Lizard’s Thicket. “The waitresses and managers and everybody there has a notion about ISIL. People understand who this group is now.”

I should think the waitresses at “Lizard’s Thicket” would be more fearful of paying their weekly and monthly bills, given the low wages earned by wait staff in America.  Or that they and their customers would be more fearful of their sons and daughters in uniform being deployed to Iraq to showcase those “muscles” that Republican politicians are always trying to flex.  (Don’t worry: No politicians, Republican or Democrat, are eager to send their own sons and daughters overseas to fight.)

Once again, Republican politicians are banging the drums of fear – and as my dad always said, the empty barrel makes the most noise.  The music is as tragic as it is predictable: endless war in the name of looking tough and defeating terror.  And anyone who dares to suggest the folly of this risks being tarred as an appeaser to ISIS and its ilk.

What burns my butt is that none of these blowhard politicians has any skin in the game.  They risk nothing in bleating for war.  It’s not their sons and daughters who are being deployed to the front lines.

The other day, I was talking to a young woman at my eye doctor’s office.  Her brother is in the Army.  She told me he’s an EOD, an explosive ordnance disposal specialist.  A risky job, I said, to which she replied, “He volunteered for the extra money,” money that the Army has yet to pay him.  He’s got a four-year commitment and is due to be deployed after his training is completed.

So, as they seek to “outmuscle” their political rivals, how many politicians’ sons are in the Army right now, training for EOD duty and risking their lives for the extra money that comes with this hazardous duty?  My educated guess: none.  Absolutely none.

It’s easy to flex (and to risk) the muscles of others, America.  Stop listening to politicians and their fear-mongering.  No foreign terrorist is coming to get you as you enjoy your coffee and hash browns at “Lizard’s Thicket.”  No – the biggest risk is blowhard politicians who are so, so, eager to send your sons and daughters off to yet more wars in the cause of outmuscling their rivals for political office.

7 thoughts on “Republicans and Fear”

  2. I complete agree..this fear issue is being generated almost entierly by..black flag events set up by intellegenc agencies to trick the americans into fighting the Saudi’s and the Israeli’s wars for them. We are a seperate nation from those gangsters, or more properly banksters. This endless war on terror Chenny and Bush and the neocons and the Israelis want is commplete and utter fabricated bu…… ‘incedents’. Sorry Rudy G.

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    1. Larry.. you hit the nail on the head. We created the political vacuum in Iraq by allowing Saudi and Israeli interests to drive our foreign policy. Americans should be asking why the Saudi and other Gulf Sunni Moslem states do not have boots on the ground in Iraq. The Bush short sighted policies in Iraq created Isis. Iraq and Syria are now catastrophic failures which we can no longer put back together. Iran is the only country in that area that could really help to defeat ISIS and the paranoid interests of Israel and the Saudis and the political stupidity of the Republicans combined with Obama’s lack of a learning curve all combine to drive Iran to the periphery. Unfortunately even the ‘liberal’ part of the Democratic Party in congress is now joining the hawks in authorizing Obama’s increased war powers. Where are the mass marches against war that we saw in the lead up to the Bush invasion of Iraq?.

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  3. I am compelled to point out that US foreign policy serves the interests of the US Ruling Class. Period. Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia–those most uneasy partners in the US Coalition of Puppets and Lickspittles–do NOT dictate US foreign policy. The tail does NOT wag the dog. Please, let us not hand ammo to the Jew-haters and confused 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists who claim Israel tells the USA what to do!!! Modern Israel’s establishment was supported by the US because a.) the US WASP Establishment didn’t want “those people” flocking to these shores after WW II; and b.) by arming that state to the teeth with modern weaponry, paid for with our tax dollars, and pledging total support to them, a convenient dagger was positioned at the throat of the oil-rich Arab world. This dagger is used to pressure the neighboring regimes. If all the crude oil beneath Arab sands dried up tomorrow, the KSA and Israel would be discarded as US “allies” like yesterday’s garbage.

    Bill Astore–I see a future appointment for you at the Ministry of Fear. You need reprogramming! []

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    2. Sorry Greg. Oil still is master and who has the oil? Why the Arabian peninsula of course.And then we have AIPAC, the Israeli lobby to keep our two political parties in line. And the ruling class here? Those who don’t cut the coupons from their stock in the oil companies or work for them are the poodles in congress who use their money to keep their jobs.

      All of these countries,Israel, the Gulf states, and we will bear the full result of these misplaced policies. It’s happening real time now in Syrai-Iraq and Ukraine.

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