Recycling Fear, and War

UNITING AND STRENGTHENING AMERICA (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Overcome Terrorism, aka "The Patriot Act". "Overcoming" is not the right word, but the right word is something similar. Whatever it takes to create a catchy acronym for the greater purpose of gaining greater control of the masses. So much for the conservative dream of "smaller government". In 1991, there was a group on a college campus, somewhere, which called itself "SAGE" (students Against Gulf Engagement), which everyone involved thought rather clever. This group stood in front of the student union, carrying signs which said things like "no war for oil", dodging spit and right wing, pseudo patriotic invective. But the war for oil ensued, then another, than another, justified by a gang of thugs scattered around the middle east who could have been rounded up and prosecuted like gangsters, but instead were treated as if they were a highly organized modern army, and the "war or Terror" something more than a war against a noun. Never discount the ability of American conservatives to whip up a frenzy of the only thing we have to fear, then channel fear into aggression. But why limit yourself, or your national ambitions? Why not invade a country, rather than merely a few hundred safe houses? And why not give the FBI and the NSA (National Security Agency) the power to enter any home without warning or knocking, and the power to eavesdrop on whatever electronic communication it chooses? If the good people of Kuwait had seen the movie "Gandhi", we might not be dealing with the Islamic State in 2014, we might be obtaining lucrative, and voluntarily consummated contracts for oil production from a peaceful and democratic Iraqi nation, free from Saddam Hussein. Goldwater had his little girl eviscerating a flower, Reagan his "bear in the woods", and Bush his pack of wolves television commercials, and only Goldwater failed to scare the American people sufficiently to achieve election, excessive fear, militarization, and war for profit. What the war mongers among us fail to understand is that military production and procurement does not stimulate the economy; it stimulates war. Tanks and guns do not easily recycle into food, clothing, and shelter.