Can we stop waging wars now?

Published 12:01 am Thursday, May 5, 2011

Osama bin Laden is dead. Can we go home now? Bin Laden has been taken out by covert operations in a way similar to Che Guevara’s assassination in Bolivia two generations ago. Will Osama become a cult hero in the Muslim world as Guevara became in Latin America? Probably not.

Muslim extremists willing to resort to violence against the West comprise only a very small portion of the Middle Eastern population. Al-Qaida has been marginalized from recent events unfolding in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s oilfields are going through depletion. What will the Saudi royal family do when they run out of oil? What will we do when we can no longer afford to import and heavily subsidize oil? Consider this: food production uses more oil than any other sector of the economy, even transportation.

The United States must demilitarize or face economic and social collapse rivaling the fall of the Roman Empire. For some it seems counter-intuitive that dramatically cutting back on the military budget will actually make our nation environmentally, socially and economically healthier. Our current trajectory (perpetual war) puts us on a direct course for ruin. Perhaps we are already there.

How much of our national debt is due to funding wars based on false premises/lies (Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan)? Why are the Chinese financing our foreign adventures while our nation becomes a hollow shell of its former self? Perhaps they know that our wars of choice are really self-inflicted wounds.

Eric Teegarden
Brier