War in Iraq, 21st Century Economics...Unpleasant Thoughts

I try to follow the coverage the media, both "mainstream" and "acceptable-alternative," gives various news stories.

Without question the Democrat Primary campaign gets the most ink day after day. And the coverage, as John Edwards' wife so ably pointed out in her NYTimes Op-Ed piece, almost solely concentrates on various tactics, gossip and the candidates' personalities.

So be it.

But here at this modest Blog, the temptation to do otherwise notwithstanding, I am resolved to write about important matters.

The two most important issues facing the United States (and by extension, the democratic, industrialized democracies) are the War in Iraq and the Economics of the 21st Century, particularly the unprecedented transfer of wealth from the aforementioned nations to the nations that produce exportable oil.

These are both complex issues not easily captured in sound bites or snapshots. To report on them, let alone analyze and comment (synthesize) on them, requires deep, sometimes long, thinking. That's not what media is all about. Mass media is about quick and easy; here today, gone tomorrow kind of stuff.

I'm not a media-guy, but neither am I an academic. I use my brain for sure; but I'm not afraid to use my human intuition either. I'm not an "expert" in/on anything. My only credential is the writing I produce.

As I indicated in a recent earlier blog, I am working on the general subject of the inexplicable spike in commodity prices, including without limitation such commodities as oil, corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans.

Concomitant with that work, I am thinking about the insidious transfer of wealth currently taking place, whereby nations such as the USA and Japan, for example, are having their wealth stolen by countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia, for example. I have reached one conclusion thus-far:

THIS PHENOMENON IS THE GREATEST NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT CURRENTLY FACING THE INDUSTRIALIZED DEMOCRACIES; AND THE ELECTED LEADERSHIPS OF THESE DEMOCRACIES ARE SITTING WITH THEIR FINGERS UP THEIR COLLECTIVE ASSES WHILE THIS IS HAPPENING.

The War in (not with) Iraq is the other subject I am expending thought upon. The fabulousness of the USG miscalculations is unprecedented in our nation's history. And the relative acquiescence of the American public to this patent and self-destructing fiasco is nothing if not mysterious.

As part of this study, the grotesque suffering of the Iraqi people themselves due to our government's preposterous assumptions that under-girded our invasion is at the forefront of my thinking. For example, Iraq's population is approximately 8.3 per cent of that of the United States (25 million vs. 300 million;) therefore, to adjust Iraq casualty numbers to make them proportional to what those numbers would be in our country if the "war" were being fought on United States home-turf, one must multiply the Iraq citizen casualty numbers by a factor of 12! That means when 60 Iraqis die in a suicide bombing , it would be the equivalent of 720 Americans dying in a suicide bombing on United States soil.

So every time you read about X-number of Iraqis dying, multiply that number by 12 to appreciate the impact that those many deaths would have on us.

More and more to come on these, and other topics.