The solutions to our national problems are simple and obvious, we’re just too set in our ways to implement them.
This country has been on a wartime footing since 1942. If you don’t believe it, look at how much of our national treasure we spend on our war machine compared to other nations.
No less than Donald Trump got some traction with his comment about dropping out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but no presidential candidate dares call for cuts in the Pentagon’s war budget. Even Bernie Sanders has admitted that he voted for military pork when it meant jobs for Vermont.
The United States has been financing all sides of recent near- and middle-eastern wars, whether through economic and military foreign aid, direct intervention or buying the oil that funds weaponry to use against us.
I propose a capitalistic solution. (See “Peace is Bullish” at NevadaLabor.com/)
All we have to do is pay off our adversaries. I doubt that anyone has hired an economist to do a study, but cashing out the likes of Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban and the Islamic State would undoubtedly be far cheaper in terms of lives and treasure than perpetual war and terrorism.
We can find them their own territories and anyone who voluntarily wishes to live in such Twilight Zones can do so. An international consortium would keep close watch so that such adolescents could not foment further mischief and mayhem or expand their boundaries. Autonomy with adult supervision.
We created a nation from whole cloth called Israel and it hasn’t worked out very well because we didn’t go far enough. We haven’t tried letting other displaced peoples take their balls and go home. We just need to create those homes. (Can you say Kurdistan?)
The Zapatista Rebels of Mexico’s Chiapas State provide one example.
“Indigenous Mexico’s fight for recognition and respect was symbolised by the Zapatista uprising which burst into the open on 1 January 1994, the day the country entered the North American Free Trade Agreement – an arrangement the government insisted would vault Mexico into the first world,” the UK-based Guardian newspaper reported on Feb. 5 in advance of Pope Francis’ visit.
The Mexican government cut a deal with the rebels that remains unfulfilled, as do the hollow promises of “free” trade. While still a troubled work in progress, Zapatistas control parts of their own region and enacted land reform, the path to self-sufficiency.
The best way to diminish immigration is to make it attractive to stay home.
Rather than the corruption and carnage caused by entrenched oligarchies worldwide, let’s just buy off the guys shooting at us and let them try running a country for awhile – under adult supervision, of course.
It’s the only way I know to slowly stop making more veterans.
¡Si se puede!
¡HAIL, CÉSAR! Despite competing events including UNR basketball, last Wednesday’s César Chávez Celebration XIV broke its previous paid attendance record. Details at CesarChavezNevada.com/
Be well. Raise hell. “Esté bien. Haga infierno.”
Andrew Barbano is a 47-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
Leave a Reply