Jim Austin

His previous columns are archived HERE.

JIM AUSTIN

Amnesia

Why do we all get a case of mass amnesia where politics is concerned? Have we not had centuries of examples where leaders have lead a bovine populace from one disaster to another?

It is as if the first thing governments do is set up a Department of Asinine Choices which is designed to run contrary to the state's best interests.

In the last hundred years look how humankind has advanced. Two of our brothers took a short flight on a windy beach at Kitty Hawk. A century later a band of computer geeks and engineers shrugged off the surly bonds of earth to land a craft on Mars 100 million miles away. (Not only that but their rover sends back color pictures of the Martian landscape for use as screensavers for all.)

Will we ever go back to aircraft designs that will blow up, be unstable or crash due to flaws in basic structure? No, is the answer. The reason is that when aircraft engineers have a new idea they check their figures and blueprints against those that have already proved either success or failure. This is part of their education in Aeronautical Engineering 101.

We have made great progress over the past century in our fight against disease. We don't die of minor infections anymore or rabies or childbirth. Americans can expect to live into their 80s if they look after themselves. When a new disease crops up scientists don't put a petrie dish on the windowsill and hope a virus-killing mold appears. Dr. Fleming already did that. Scientific trial and error is part of the history of medical advancement. No scientist would ever embark on a cure without studying the literature.

History and Political Science are courses taught in every major university on the continent. Do any of our leaders ever take these subjects?

Do they spend all of their college years taking pastry design or studying the Tao of kitchen utensils? Just lately, only a decade or two after we fought to a stalemate in Korea, we invaded Vietnam where we lost 50,000 men and the war. Now after having a ringside seat to the fall of communism due, in no small part, to their adventure in Afghanistan, we decide to invade the same place and follow it up with an invasion of Iraq.

How's it going? Not so hot. What a surprise.

Why do governments make the same mistakes over and over again?

One theory is that some governments put their own personal interests over those of the country. How else can you explain sending other people's kids off to war when it isn't essential to our national security? As the lies are revealed and proven beyond doubt we are left with only a few real reasons behind the invasion of Iraq.

There were no weapons of mass destruction, there was no nuclear program, or Al Quaeda connection. So, why?

As Sherlock Holmes used to say to his pal Watson: "When all obvious possibilities are eliminated, the unlikely must be true".

The Bush administration's reasons for invading Iraq are becoming more and more clear as the wall of lies comes tumbling down. It's oil; it's lining the pockets of companies like Halliburton, and it is personal for George.

We have an opportunity to see what we can do to eliminate this historically dim and greedy President. The handwriting is on the wall when viewed through the lens of history. If we can't get our leaders to look at it then we must.

We only have to scan obituaries nationwide where young men and women are giving their lives for Bush's dream of a plutocratic state for America. It is a state where the fat cats get positively gargantuan and the SUVs get bigger and bigger sucking up gas from our personal oil well in Iraq.

Their vision of the U.S. is not only arrogant -- it is just not worth it. How long do you think we will last with our pre-emptive military strikes, our contempt for the environment and our shocking disregard for our allies?

Barbarians crushed the almighty Roman Empire. Modern barbarians, with bombs strapped to their chests, are gathering at our gates.