Exorbitant Spending Sacrifices Public Well Being.

Shared by: Syed Ehtisham.

Authored by: Ron Forthofer.

President Dwight Eisenhower gave his first major presidential speech, The Cross of Iron, on April 16, 1953. He laid out several important precepts guiding US conduct in world affairs as well pointing out the cost of military spending in very concrete terms. Eisenhower stated:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

“This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.”

In 1957, General Douglas MacArthur also warned about military spending when he said:

“Our swollen budgets constantly have been misrepresented to the public. Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant funds demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.”

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https://countercurrents.org/author/ron-forthofer/

Are The Leaders Making Humanity Extinction a Reality

Shared By: Mahmood A Khawaja, PHD.

A reflective snap shot of a critical moment in time pulse and movement of history reveals absence of reasoned dialogue for the prevention of the on –going conflict causing massive human casualties, displacement of millions of Ukrainian civilian refugees across Europe, destruction of essential civic infrastructures and furious competitive edge for success in an ugly war between Russia, the West and Ukraine. To glance ahead of the emerging horrifying events coming out of the Russian-Ukraine war fronts, We, The People of global humanity must call for immediate halt to all war machines and lingering suspicion of one-sided peace and triumph. The sudden and inexplicable plunge into insanity of war will not produce any military or psychological gains for violent assumptions plagued with hatred, bias and false claims and counter claims of military superiority, defeats and occupation.

Ukraine, Russia and the Easter of Insanity

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

Ukraine, Russia and the Easter of Insanity

We, the People witnessing a planned scheme of things to exterminate humanity with superior weapons hitting targeted civilian towns and daily bloodbath as a new normal. Have we not learned any lessons from the European nationalistic wars of First World War and the 2nd World War?  We, the Humanity continue to argue if wars have become part of new normal – unknown and unthinkable to human civilizations and rational thinking. We, the People are entrapped and entrenched by dirty politics of the few. It needs a formidable challenge to rethink about the continuity of the current tragedy in Ukraine.

To stop the war in Ukraine, the US, the EU, NATO should have a direct face to face communication with President Putin. It could be facilitated under the G20 auspices. It is logical when people of diversity and opposing ideals come to talk directly, tensions and evil mongering is reduced to reason and mutual interest. This has not happened except military options for weapon supplies and enlargement of the scope of regional conflict.  Time and history will not forgive nor forget any of the leaders if they failed to agree to an immediate ceasefire and peace deal. 

Pakistan: Politics of Deception and Betrayal

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD

Pakistan: Politics of Deception and Betrayal

The lingering suspicion unfolds a reasoned impression that Imran Khan – the hurriedly ousted PM’s failure is the net success of the nine skeleton grouped parties – “Democratic Front.” This Front is not formed by the people but by the few discontented figures eager to grab political power by any means. It would be illogical to describe the opposition as democratic as so many of them are listed indicted criminals, thugs, killers and failed politicians of the recent past. The current political chaos does not signal any ingenious mechanism of rational perception to appreciate the necessity of political change engineered by the few against many – the masses of Pakistan.

There is stunning embarrassed silence as to why the army General would become part of a violent assumption for change and plague the extravagant idea of leadership change in the country. The so-called “Democratic Front” does not appear to have any rational agenda for the present or futuristic socio-economic and political challenges and hard times facing the besieged nation. 

Imran Khan – a new generation sportsman (Tehreek-e-Insaf) “Movement for Justice”, with moral and intellectual integrity had many weaknesses and strength but unlike the opposition leaders, he has no criminal past, he did not rob any banks nor killed any fellow citizens and did not loot any public treasury to buy palaces in UK, France, Dubai and elsewhere. Is Pakistani politics reserved for the thugs, criminals and killers and not for any intelligent proactive person standing for a fair and just society to be evolved in a systematic manner?