mwl, the so-called GWOT is illegal because the U.S. Constitution in no way allows for Congress to abdicate its power to declare war to the POTUS. It’s illegal under international law and the Geneva conventions because, at least in Iraq, it is a War of Aggression, like when Hitler invaded Poland.
Having grown up in countries like Libya and Saudi Arabia (my father was a government contractor teaching English in both countries, and we knew Americans and Europeans there with oil concerns) I can say, the jizya is of little importance, since there is already a highly militarized occupying force here in the United States, in the form of the police. Living in the military dictatorship of Libya, I saw fewer armed soldiers and checkpoints and dogs and machine guns in Tripoli of the 70′s, than I do at any professional sports game or airport in America. This place is a police state already. To serve and protect is right, they just serve and protect their corporate masters. You guys are wetting your pants about Muslims in caves and your reaction is to welcome tyranny at home just because it promises to protect you. You reject Hillary care (hey, me too), but then you gobble up Bush’s bedtime stories about Al-Queda? Puh-lease!
Free trade that is fair and mutually profitable should not require military force to maintain. Piracy doesn’t require the kind of military we have to suppress. Only neo-colonialism and economic imperialism require rattling sabres and parking carrier groups in the Straits of Hormuz.
Furthermore, I wont get in a pissing contest about who knows more about what, but it seems clear to me you have little if any experience outside the cozy confines of your American suburban lifestyle. And lastly I’m not a “leftie.” I’m a libertarian. I’m pro free market, anti-state, anti-war and anti-welfare, especially for multi-national corporations.
