From the website of Dennis Kucinich:
Unbelievable. First they want to redistrict me to get me out of Congress.
Now the GOP led Congress voted last week to eliminate all funding for the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) – one of the few programs in the budget dedicated to conflict prevention and non-violence – while they added another $158 billion in the same budget for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The two wars will consume $42.7 million – the entire budget for the USIP – in 142 minutes.
It’s a one-two punch to our efforts to promote peaceful conflict resolution over war.
And now a few facts from Harper’s Index (March 2011):
Estimated percentage change since 2000 in the U.S. defense budget, not including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: +80%
Number of American civilians who died worldwide in terrorist attacks last year: 8
Minimum number who died after being struck by lightning: 29
Estimated spending by Afghans on bribes last year: $2,500,000,000
Portion of the country’s GDP to which this figure is equivalent: 1/4
More evidence that we are being led by a government comprised mostly of mentally ill, or sleepwalking, politicians. These data indicate a pathology, a cancer. Not only does this government obviously not care at all about you personally, this government is clearly working actively against all humanity. The best and brightest are continually suppressed and the scum rises to the surface and is rewarded. Despite it all I remain an optimist, and believe the world may be in the final stages of a particularly difficult labor (lots of blood and screaming and pain) before giving birth to a brighter new world and an evolutionary quantum jump in human consciousness. In an uncertain and indeterminate universe, why not tune into the channel showing the best possible program?
While the human capacity for ignorance and stupidity is nearly infinite, one should never underestimate the sociopathic tendencies of those with money and influence. The American military has for centuries been a tool of the wealthy to subjugate peoples and steal their resources, and in that view the War on Terror is a success.
It has after all made good on our threats of violence and made it clear that we mean business when we (via the IMF and other structures) tell poor countries to open themselves up to free trade, reduce corporate taxes, and reduce other government-imposed barriers to trade, which all reduces to: let us plunder your resources while not paying a penny in taxes and stop social spending so the people are in abject poverty and will work for next to nothing.
Miles,you make a very solid point. I usually put most evil acts into the bucket marked 'Ignorance' because I suspect that ignorance is the basic, fundamental root of manifested evil. But I think you're right on target–this frenzied mania by governments to perpetually kill and dominate may often be mindful and calculated behavior, making it an even deeper and more unforgivable evil.