I have been getting a number of questions lately from people who believe that because I do not support John McCain's presidential hopes (and instead will vote for Libertarian Bob Barr) I am inviting in the reign of Barack Obama and that will somehow bring about an apocalypse worthy of its own chapter in Revelations. They further accuse me of being a Bush Basher simply because my main complaint with McCain is that he would lengthen the time in which George W Bush's agenda has an effect on our country.
I thought that it may be good to express to every one my true opinions by providing the answers to questions I receive on these post. If you desire to ask me questions feel free to send me a message and I will not reference your name in answering. It need not be political in nature and my answers need not be right or what you hoped to hear either :).
"Should we provide our legal system to every terrorist, enemy captured in a war?"
POWs have always been captured in wars. The difference here is we aren't really at war with a country. If we are simply going to go throughout the world and pull people off the streets who look bad or have less than the highest quality of friends in order to lock them up in a country on the other side of the world... the least we should have to do is prove that something is being accomplished in doing so.
"What will the cost be? From the time someone in California is convicted and sentenced to death and actually put to death, 25 years."
The cost will be a small fraction of our current operating cost in Iraq. And as for California's death penalty time frame... I'm not entirely sure the death penalty is a good idea anyway. Personally I'm for hard labor, but apparently we don't like that as an option anymore.
"Should we just not take any prisoners? Should we not fight any wars?"
Its fine to take prisoners in a war, and then when the war is over you release them or try them, you don't simply glance over a document and sentence a guy without letting him present some kind of defense. Also, keep in mind these current prisoners are not POWs... if they were they would not get habeas corpus. George W didn't want them labeled that because if they were POWs they would get Geneva convention rights and that would inconvenience us. So now instead of getting POWs what we are in fact doing is going into foreign countries and arresting their citizens because they either shoot at us or because we don't like their friends. Either way we have no right to police foreign countries. Should China come and arrest a minister because he's a preacher in the United States? Of course not... neither should we go into foreign countries and arrest their citizens.We have no right to do what we do in Iraq plain and simple.
"Should we not fight any wars?"
No we shouldn't. However; if we are forced to act then we should defend ourselves. There is no need for our armies to be spread throughout the world, there is no need for us to go on preemptive strikes on countries that spend less than .5% what we do on military expenses, and there is no need to then arrest that countries citizens after we are done with our illegal operations of terminating their leaders.
"Should we just say we will live off our own resourses and make the adjustments accordingly? Should we not export or import?"
These are, no offense, kind of foolish questions in a way. Of course we cannot live off our own resources. It would be great if we could, but we as a nation consume far more than we could ever hope to produce now. I have no problems with exporting or importing and I don't really know where that question is coming from.
"Instead of a military should we just have the State Department give out aid in hopes every one will think we are nice and like us?"
No! By all means NO! Instead of having such a vast military we should simply butt out of the affairs of sovereign countries. Seriously, what gives us the right, and where do we draw the notion that we should go throughout the world and show our dominance. Freedom is doomed to fail when a country resorts to its military to exist.
"Should we have a Senate committee that decides how much each occupation should be paid?"
We already do. Its called the senate labor committee and they decide in large part what to set minimum wage at. What this has to do with Bush bashing is beyond me though.
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