by
Dr. Sherman N. Miller
4/14/2008
As the 2008 General Election starts to take shape, we must look at
issues that have impact beyond merely winning the primaries and the
election. It is one thing to win the election, but quite another to
govern. Former President Jimmy Carter won the Presidency, but he
struggled in governing. His legacy may be written more on his great
achievements after leaving The White House. The new president will have
to spend some time reassessing the spending priorities of the nation;
especially since we are teetering on a severe economic downturn or
possibly an economic depression.
When
we look at the Iraq War and consider the economic plight of the nation
then we must ask about the cost and benefit of carrying on a
protracted war.
National Priorities Project
reports
that the Iraq War is costing the American people 341.4 million dollars
per day to sustain.
The Great Chinese War Philosopher Sun Tzu warren thousands of years ago
about the debilitating impact of protracted wars on the economy of a
nation. “When a country is impoverished by military operations it is due
to distant transportation; carriage of supplies for great distances
renders the people destitute. . . Where the army is, prices are high;
when prices rise the wealth of the people is exhausted. When wealth is
exhausted the peasantry will be afflicted with urgent exactions. . .
With strength thus depleted and wealth consumed the households in the
central plains will be utterly impoverished and seven-tenths of their
wealth dissipated.”
Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden, and other anti-American forces
appear to have studied Sun Tzu’s teaching, so they have a military
strategy of fighting a protracted war to foster an economic collapse of
the US and Western economies. Clearly, the Senators Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton are determined to stop the economic carnage that the
Iraq War is perpetrating on the American people. NPP shows we have spent
over half trillion dollars on the Iraq War to date. Now the issue
becomes where does the new president spend the next half trillion and
get a much better return on our investment?
My guess is America will get a handle on the current overpriced oil
crisis within the next four year Presidential term. The rise of
alternatives to oil will reduce significantly the economic importance of
the Middle East on the global economy. Hence,
I would ask the new President to consider spending at least one month of
the Iraq spending on Third World nations where starvation, rape, poor
health, and death make them prime candidate for Al Qaeda expansion.
The
Columbia Encyclopedia reports, “Liberia
was founded in 1821, when officials of the
American Colonization Society were granted possession of Cape
Mesurado by local De chiefs for the settlement of freed American slaves.
African-American immigrants were landed in 1822, the first of some
15,000 to settle in Liberia.” However, this grand American experiment of
nation building teetered on collapse in the 20th Century as
Columbia Encyclopedia further reports, “The civil warfare that raged
from 1990 to 1997 and from 2001 to 2003 had a disastrous effect on the
Liberian economy, with many business people fleeing the country as
rebels gained control of vast quantities of gold, diamonds, natural
rubber, and tropical hardwoods.”
http://plus.aol.com/aol/reference?query=Liberia&flv=1&ncid=fLHHQXUNeT0000000474&icid=rbox_countries.M
One sees a lot of poverty portrayed in television advertisements seeking
your gifts to disadvantage children. The news media will show pictures
of people queuing for food. However, I found it significantly more
touching to hear a person tell of atrocities in person. One of my former
graduate students from Liberia gave me some pictures of Liberian
atrocities that occurred September 18, 1998. He shared some of his
experience. This student got sick while chatting. It appeared that the
horrific memories were playing on his mind. He had to go to the hospital
just after he shared his experience. I understand that he did not have a
major problem.
On the back of one of these pictures is written: “Bro XXXX These
pictures depicting massive killing of [ ] people during September 18
shootout on Camp Johnson Road. Please make sure that they are published
in newspaper in America. I could not have published them because the
government (forbade) publication by media organizations.”
Will the new President redirect
some of the Iraq dollars to see that Liberia does not evolve into a
haven for Al Qaeda?
Liberia: Camp Johnson Road Attack 9/18/1998
