The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

The military is an abused institution in a country that has gained a sort-of cult worship. We as a nation spend what?, 460 BILLION annually on "defence"..........460 BILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIONNN......and yet we have cuts in VA benefits, head start programs, Pell Grants, Meals-on-Wheels.....good god people, are we not the most paranoid, priority-clueness nation on the planet. Million-dollar missles and the poor smoe that fires it can't get proper health-care.

So what do we do? Here's my plan: Redirect an ever-increasing portion of the bloated Defence appropriations. Invest in construction, not destruction. Make friends, not enemies. Invest in education, not patriotic propaganda. Invest in new technologies, not subsidize outdated vested-interest enviromentally-damaging industries. Live by the Golden Rule (Treat others as you wish to be treated) as a NATION and STOP MEDDLING IN THE AFFAIRS OF FOREIN NATIONS!!! Our country has been turned into a terrorist nation by war profiteers and corporate looters who prey on resources of others nations. And We the People are subsidizing these pirates by allowing our military to be used as mercenarys as in Iraq, Afganistan, Columbia, and other less-known parts of the world.

NO MORE...NO FRIGGING MORE, DAMNIT!!! Get your hands off our kids, you out-of-touch, corrupt policians. BRING THEM HOME! BRING THEM HOME ,NOW!!! It is unconscionable, no matter what your belief system, to invest so much of our resources, effort, and human life in the pursuit of better means of death and destruction. What idiot thinks that you can save another nation by destroying it first. It would be far more noble to set a non-aggressive example of who we are and welcome others to join us, rather than shoving our culture in their face and telling them, "You WILL like this and accept it."

It makes me sick how the current cabal of D.C. hypocrites play the patriotism card over and over and over....while they are digging deeper in our pockets and sending GI Johnny to get his leg blown off so our corporations can suck up the newly-privatized petroleum resorces of a nation on the other side of the globe.

I look around me and see big, spoided, clueless, Americans regurgitating the lasted corporate-sponsered-news propaganda without ever engaging their critical-thinking and questioning the reasons for our military deployments. GODDAMNIT THAT'S MY KID, YOU SONS-OF-BITCHES!!!

Sjoca, I respect your right to a contrary position, and I respect your respectful tone. I wish others with conrary views to yours deserved respect, but replies like "Soldiers are dumbfucks. They deserve what they get." lower the value of any contribution. And I have listened to your views, but expressing doubts about a policy that may be illegal under international law (iraq war) is not aiding and abetting the enemy. Iraqi's are not my enemy, they never were. Iraqis are the victims of a brutal empire building policy and the vast majority of attacks against US troops are taken by people fighting for their homeland, much as you would fight for America if you were invaded and occupied.

Invading and destroying Iraq does nothing to defend America. Every terrorist killed creates 10 more Terrorists. How many more Terrorists are created every time Bush's brave boys bomb a wedding party from the air?

War is sometimes necessary to defend freedom, but not in this case. Iraq had disarmed, There was NO WMD, Saddam was controlled and could not threaten his neighbours let alone the US, Iraq was not a threat, Bush, Cheney, and the WHIG, OSP (Ahmed Chalabi's cabal) and others deliberately lied to start this war. A war that means that Iraq is more of a threat now, than whilst Saddam was in charge.

As a Conservative it really saddens and indeed sickens me to have to admit, after actually reading UN the reports and speaking to people in the security services in MI6 and CIA, and the Austrailian security services and elsewhere that the US and British and Spanish and Austrailian administrations LIED people into an un-necessary and unjust war.

Please take off your rose tinted spectacles and see the truth. I know it will be painful and you will become very angry, but to know the truth is to know god. Bush bore false witness and covets his neighbours oil and murdered thousand of people to enable his cronies to steal that oil. Yet he calls himself a Christian?

Bush and Cheney are traitors who have made US citizens less safe, putting your children in the firing line so that US corporations steal massive financial rewards. It is your kin that they sacrifice. They lied to you to steal your children from you and you still defend them? Your forfathers overthrew the British so that you would never again suffer under royal Tyranny. Now you offer your Children into the service of your nation for that service to be bastardised and corrupted and abused by King George.

Who is the greater Terrorist? Who has deliberately killed more innocents? Bin-Laden? Saddam? or Bush?

The war was started deliberately by Bush and his accomplices, knowing that thousands of innocents would be killed, innocents who had NOTHING to do with 911 or any other terrorism. Innocents who had been brutalised and oppressed for years under Saddam, Innocents who today continue to be brutalised by US, British troops and Terror gangs and Criminal gangs and religious fundementalists who rape and then kill women in so called honor killings.

In over two and a half years of occupation by the west, with all the money the tax payers have flooded into that country, electricity is worse than under Saddam, Water suplies are worse than under Saddam, security and healthcare and religious theocracy and crime and education and unemployment are all far worse than under Saddam Hussien and YOUR children are used to create this situation. But Hey, Halliburton's Stock value is Great Well, they ask the military to bomb bridges, or whatever, and the US taxpayer pays Halliburton a FORTUNE to rebuild them, sometimes this happens many times.

Bush, Cheney, Saddam, Bin Laden, Blair, Howard... all of them are evil terrorists and they all need each other to justify their existence and policies and to create their fortunes.

That is the truth and it Hurts.

hey here's a little talking point for y'all:

have of you ignorant bush supporters noticed that since 9/11 NO TERRORIST HAS DENIED YOU ANY FREEDOMS. ONLY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS.

you're all up in arms about fighting terrorists who are supposedly "attacking your freedoms"...will someone please point out ONE, just ONE freedom that any terrorist has denied you? on the other hand, from the "Patriot Act" to many other laws passed in the wake of 9/11, YOUR government has demolished the Constitution and done away with most of its protections of YOUR rights.

so please, stop waving the flag and parroting the propaganda nonsense spewing out of d.c. and learn the facts. THE ONLY PEOPLE DENYING YOU FREEDOMS, THE ONLY THREAT TO YOUR FREEDOM IS YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT. no terrorist, no saddam, no foreigner has ANY power whatsoever to deny you ANYTHING. only your government does - and has and will continue to do so UNTIL YOU PEOPLE WAKE UP AND REALIZE WHO THE REAL ENEMY IS.

Sjoca, I hope your children come home safe and sound. Many soldiers who return suffer either mental or physical trauma as a direct result from the war.
I can not expound on the last post. It has a wisdom and knowledge behind it sorely lacking in the mainstream media, which was itself compliant in pushing the war amongst the people not capable of informing themselves about the war and the reasons behind it.
The true tragedy is not that your children serve in Iraq out of patriotism, while in actuality defending the corporations that make huge profits from taxpayer money, but that so many who were supposed to show us the truth and guide us by giving us facts, simply were eager to push into war.

Burt if you read this forum i think its safe to say you have the support of the overwhelming majority of the peaple not just of the united states but of the world.

Posting from south wales uk.

As a Vietnam-era Air Force veteran, I welcome the courage of Burt to tell the ugly truth! Our young men are in Iraq based entirely on lies told by an AWOL misfit in the Oval Office! Vietnam was a BIG lie told by LBJ! Iraq will be shown as a lie based on the greed of the NWO gang for oil, and other precious resources!!! Besides, we are NOT in a war on terror in Iraq. The USA is guilty of a preemptive invasion of a soverign nation. Never forget, Bush 41 and Rummy put Saddam in power to begin with!!!
May God and the people of Iraq one day forgive the good ole USA!!!

After the terrorists read our constitution and saw the freedoms it guaranteed it made them furious and they decided to bomb the twin towers and pentagon. Now we are in Iraq to defend our freedoms and constitution and make Iraq free.