Wars and Rumors of Wars – Signs of the times

The press has been playing up the war games scenarios of war with Iran. The religious will say that these are the signs of the end of the world. This may or may not be the case. The thought that the US would attempt another conflict is not credible without some type of serious provocation. It is highly unlikely that Iran would give the US this type a motivation. This raises the question, “Why would the press give so much coverage to War with Iran?” I can see four primary thoughts:

1. The US is trying to protect “American Interests”. The rest of the world is not inline with additional sanctions so the US is “threatening” Iran. Somehow I do not think that Iran feels threatened and would welcome a conflict initiated by the US.
2. The Administration wants to create the concept of “security” before the elections. This also seems like a superficial reasoning. America has grown increasingly skeptical of the real reasons why we attacked Iraq and would not readily accept a need to attack Iran.
3. The media wants to create the perception that the Administration is only interested in making war. Because Americans are increasingly skeptical about the Administration’s motives, most citizens believe anything along this line is hot air.
4. Perhaps I am too cynical but this is what I believe to be the reason for all the hoopla. The US economy sucks. History suggests, and current data confirms, the US is heading into a recession at best. Worse case scenario is a prolonged depression. This will be one of the few years in which the US economy tanks in a pre-election year. Should Americans be thinking about the economy and the disastrous policies of Reaganomics next November, there will be a landslide victory, at all levels, for the Democrats.

This last theory is supported by some of the most recent actions by the Administration. They are finally listening to WE THE PEOPLE, timidly enforcing immigration laws. They are slowly beginning to verify that imported products conform to existing legislation on product safety.

May I suggest to our political leaders, forget the Iran stuff. Iran is not the problem. Even if Iran does build nuclear plants and bombs they will not be a problem for the US. We kept the Cold War going for many years and no one ever used a nuclear weapon. If the fact that Iran destabilizes the Middle East and this makes our “allies” nervous, let them pay for it. They are making good bucks on the US and its thirst for oil. Israel has become a Mecca for high tech companies, selling products into the US.

Our attention must be here at home. Before we can fix the rest of the world we need to get our own house in order. Anything else would not only be arrogant but also pretty stupid. Many talk about preparing our children to be able to compete in our new service oriented economy. In other words they need special training to work in McDonalds. The financial sector is paying the price of greed and Reaganomic based structures created to solve the S&L crisis. We have made our economic system vulnerable and now we must pay the price. Let the financial institutions go bankrupt. We should have done this in the 80s now the price will be much higher.

We must allow the millions of people who will lose their jobs the possibility to be gainfully employed making products, not smoke and mirros.

Tags: Government Politics Recession Corporate America Finance Illegal Immigration Economy Reaganomics