Wrong Again Barack

Barack Obama gave his big foreign policy speech yesterday. "There are five ways America will begin to lead again when I'm President," he said. Here they are:

1. Get out of Iraq (but responsibly!)

2. Increase the size of the Army and Marines by 92,000 soldiers and teach 'em some Arabic. Get support from other countries when we fight wars of choice.

3. Get serious about stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

4. Rebuild our traditional alliances. Understand that things that affect other countries also affect us.

5. Double the foreign aid budget.

Whoa Nelly! I have a real problem with #2 which suggests that Obama is planning on conducting more foreign occupations or wars of choice in the future when he is President and is thinking of ways to make them run more smoothly than the current war of choice. Am I the only one that thinks even considering the possibility that America will once again elect to invade some other country just because we want to is an unthinkable idea and is not something we should plan on doing?

The United States already spends more on defense that the rest of the world combined...what the hell do we need more soldiers and marines for anyway? We need a bigger military only if we're going to occupy more countries and I'd just as soon that we didn't occupy any more foreign countries, thank you very much. If we have a larger military this will simply encourage us to use it...you know the old "we're paying for it we might as well use it argument".

We might well be faced with a defensive war in the future but seriously, who is going to attack us that will require us to have even more military? I am no expert but I would venture to say that we could probably defend ourselves with maybe one quarter of the standing military we have now. Especially with all the fancy hardware we have.

The other four statements are just common sense and you can't really argue with any of them except maybe the last. Just increasing foreign aid unconditionally is a little broad and I would probably clarify it a little. Maybe qualify it to say that this foreign aid would not include military hardware and other crap that will encourage more war and death. I might also add that countries receiving foreign aid from the U.S. would have to answer for their behavior with respect toward human rights, environmental awareness, labor conditions and the living conditions for ALL of the people in their respective country. I'm picky that way. Sorry Israel.

The second statement, however, scares the hell out of me and by itself is enough for me to say no way will you see my support Obama. This, of course, goes without saying for any other candidate that presupposes America will continue the reign of global terror beyond the current debacle in Iraq. No thanks. Should not have happened this time. Sorry world. Sorry Iraq. Won't let it happen again.