US occupation of Iraq: Time for some more Civil Disobedience

[JonM]

We are so not trying to build an empire.  At least in any classic definition of the word.  Empire builders take many years of subjugating a people and raping them of their natural resources before things go as horribly wrong as what we see in Iraq.  We've skipped all the profitable resource grabbing for the expensive beating back the natives stage.  This is costing us a fortune, and rule one of empire building is that it is supposed to be profitable to the empire builder.  Now a case can be made that its profitable to the friends of the empire builders, but that profit is supposed to come from the subjugated nation, not the taxpayers of the empire building nation.

Where is our profit from Iraq coming from?  Our security?  Any substantive national interest?  We're engaged in Pottery Barn foreign policy.  You break it, you bought it.

Maybe these idiots want to be empire builders, but as I said, they SUCK at it.  The British, now they knew how to build empires.

[Russell Kanning]

Some people make money and gain power. The normal taxpayer suffers.

[JonM]

That's corruption, not empire building.

[tracysaboe]

Not for nothing, but it irks me when people accuse the U.S. of imperialism and empire building.  WE SUCK

Well, government bungles pretty much everything, so, no suprise there.

Tracy

[Kat Kanning]

I like the IRS building, too.  Right now, people's interaction with the recruiting office is voluntary.  No one is interacting with the IRS voluntarily.

Interfering with recruiting at the high schools might be good at some point.  The kids are forced to be at that crap.

[Russell Kanning]

The other funny thing going on there is the crazy proposed roundabout.

[Marcy]

We are fantastic at empire building, only it's not the Roman/British model that everyone is used to.  Instead of demanding tribute from subject peoples, we float our debt to them....trillions and trillions of dollars worth.  The floated debt substitutes for the tribute empires in prior centuries sucked out of conquered people.  The debt is then funneled into war materiel, which equips more than a thousand American military outposts around the globe...lots of FRN's for the suppliers.  We spend more on war goodies than the rest of the world put together.  Check out Empire of Debt by William Bonner & Addison Wiggin http://www.dailyreckoning.com/  It will probably be a very short-lived empire, but for those who had their three-score-and-ten between 1920 and 1990, it was quite a ride.

[Russell Kanning]

When should be our first day of sign holding and such to prepare the people?

[Caleb]

It isn't DESIGNED to be a long-lived empire, Marcy.  The people doing this are far from stupid.  The US is the lynchpin in the attempt to institute global government.  They control the third world through the use of the IMF and US aggression against anyone who beats to the tune of their own drummer.  The "industrialized" nations have all been coopted by the same forces who have coopted the US political system:  the globalists who are intent on one world government, and particularly one world currency.   

Sucking Iraq dry of oil doesn't serve their purposes, but controlling the distribution of oil does. 

[citizen_142002]

You might hold off until we are occupying Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, which it looks as though we might be doing in a month or so.

[Russell Kanning]

Nah ..... what they are doing now is wrong .... I have waited too long already.

[Caleb]

bump

[Russell Kanning]

I have been bumbed by some German guy.

[Caleb]

bumbed?  Do you mean "bummed"? 

Caleb

[srqrebel]

I have been thinking about what else I can do as an individual to stop the worst evil in the world today (government and its killing/imprisoning/enslaving). Beyond not participating, not funding, and openly talking .... it is time to provoke the federal government with civil disobedience.

If we are going to provoke the federal gov't with civil disobedience, a pro-active approach might accomplish more in the long run than a reactive one. 

When people everywhere abandon the obsolete form of government called State in favor of a superior free market system, these things will no longer be an issue.  National boundaries will cease to exist, as will war.  The challenge is, how do we get there from here?

The one objection to abolishing the State that I most frequently encounter goes like this, "But we need government."  This is a valid observation.  The State provides a number of valuable government and non-government services.  The problem is, these services are not provided on a voluntary contractual basis, and healthy free market competition is foreign to the State.  The State ultimately obtains it's funding at the point of a gun.

We need government.  It is important to be safe and secure from criminal activity and other harm. Businesses competing on the free market for your voluntary patronage can do a far better job of providing government services than the State ever can, and friendlier service to boot.  What businesses will not provide is corrupt politicians, war-mongering, and bullying, for there is no long-term profit in that on the free market.  Much has been written on the subject of free market government, and virtually every forseeable problem has already been worked out in theory.

I think it is time to start holding the State to the fire of competition.  Perhaps the fastest route to exposing the State for the fraud that it is, is to prove once and for all that businesses can provide better government services and be more financially responsible than the State.  The State maintains it's aura of righteousness by holding a monopoly on certain valuable services, such as 911, Fire, criminal protection, schools, postal service, roads, etc.  By outcompeting the State at providing these services to the people, it suddenly makes it obvious to the masses that the only things that the State does well is violate individual rights and destroy property.  Once the State loses the support of the masses, the struggle for freedom is over.

Steps would need to be taken to protect such businesses from attacks by the State, and when the State does manage to arrest and/or shut down their own competition, the public outcry from the satisfied customers of the offending business would serve to expose the State even further.

New Hampshire has the perfect conditions for this type of pro-active civil disobedience, as the residents are already liberty-loving individuals who are likely to care less about whether a business is legal than whether it gives good service.