Children

This may sound cruel, but why are we making an argument for war based on the death of 20 or so Syrian children? The untimely death of a child anywhere is a tragedy, but what about the infant mortality rate in our inner cities, a death rate that in many cases  rivals that of underdeveloped third world countries?  You never hear our "leaders" going on about that.  A group called "Save the Children" issued a report recently that I read on-line that said "the US has the highest first-day infant death rate in the industrialized world".  A number of deaths put at 11,300.  The same group also noted that the death rate is "...50 % more than all the other industrialized countries in the report combined".  The date on this report was May 7, 2013.

Lets show our concern for all children who die before they have a chance to enjoy life.

US War mentality

Isn't it interesting that every recent President of this country has his own little war.  Reagan had Libya and Nicaragua.  Bush I had Iraq and Kuwait.  Clinton the Balkans and what was once Yugoslavia.  Bush II had Iraq again.  Now Obama is heading toward Syria.

When I was in high school it was the issue of Cuba, two islands of the coast of China-Quamo and Matsu.  It seems that during every presidency since there has been some international crisis to hold our attention and of course give reason to the massive amount of money we have poured in the military-industrial complex.

Can our society survive at peace?  It does not seen so.

Reasons for War

So we are going to go to war now over stories of dead children gassed by the Syrians.  If you study history you may recall stories of Belgium children brutally murdered and women raped by the German army prior to our involvement in World War I.  You might also have heard of the USS Maine sunk in Havana harbor by the Spanish in 1898 that sparked our war with Spain.  Both of those stories turned out to be propaganda and not based on truth.  Many of my generation clearly remember the North Vietnam patrol boats that attacked two US navy destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964.  That story was also a lie.  And we went to war based on it and 58,000 Americans died as a result.  Not that many years ago Colin Powell told the United Nations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction-chemical and biological-and was prepared to unleash them on the Middle East and Israel.  We went to war on that lie to.  When will be learn.  Governments ready to take us to war never tell us the truth.  Its the "first casualty" of any war.

NSA surveillance program

On 7/31/13 The Record reported on the NSA program by headlining "NSA papers released, but concern in growing".  I thought the following passage informative.   "A senior NSA official conceded that the surveillance effort was the primary tool in thwarting only one plot-not the dozens that officials previously suggested".  

This program comes under the supervision of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court with the order to record "phone calls, emails, chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals".

But we are assured that "only appropriately trained and authorized personal have access to the records" (like Edward Snowden, I would ask).

Congressional Spending

From The Record's "North Jersey Tally" in regard to votes taken in Congress on 8/4/13 I found these two votes of interest.  First, senators failed to agree on appropriating $ 54 billion for transportation and housing program or releasing $ 53 billion for road projects.

Second, the Senate overwhelmingly agreed not to conceal the $ 1.5 billion yearly aid to Egypt even thou US law forbids aid to a government established by military takeover of an elected government.

Something wrong with our priorities here.