Righteous Terror

I have mentioned a number of times that I have been upgrading all my posts to a larger font. I am happy to announce that I have finished this task. 

While altering my efforts from May 2011, I encountered two consecutive posts that seem relevant considering our current war against Iran. (Yes, as I write this, a ceasefire is in effect, but the points are still valid).

In the first one, link below, I discuss the relief and dare I say happiness that permeated the nation after then President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden. I mentioned that, despite the time lapse as almost ten years had passed since 9/11, there was a catharsis expressed by many Americans, especially those who had lost a loved one on that horrible day. Obama described it as justice finally achieved.

Beyond that, I broached the subject of the cost of the special forces excursion which ultimately captured bin Laden, and the fact that, at the time, America was spending 700 billion dollars a year on the defense budget. (As a side note, bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan, an interesting tidbit of info considering that it is Pakistan that has helped broker the United States/Iran ceasefire.)

In that post, I also questioned whether America should still be in the world police business and why we had so many soldiers stationed overseas in so many countries, as opposed to spending more money on domestic issues such as improving our aging infrastructure, improving our (inner city) school systems, and providing more people with affordable health care, a goal which was attempted to be addressed through the Affordable Care Act.

Sadly, it seems that so many of the problems we faced 10, 12, 15 years ago have not only not been addressed, they seem to have become worse. America continues to get a poor return on our health care dollar, our students continue to rank below far too many or their cohorts from other countries in Math and Reading, and the latest budget proposal from the White House is asking for a 1.5 trillion dollar defense budget (over 40% more than for fiscal year 2025) while slashing 10% across the board on other domestic spending. 

Makes one wonder which country Marc Rubio was referring to when he chastised the leaders of Iran that perhaps they should have spent more money on their people and less on their military.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2011/05/osama-bin-laden.html 

The other post was a story I wrote called the Energy Conundrum. In a nutshell it depicts the leaders of America visiting the Saudi Arabian king for access to his country's energy reserves. As it turns out, the energy source we were seeking was being generated by vast arrays of solar panels. You see, the Saudis had taken all those petro dollars and invested in solar energy, which turned out to be prescient given that fossil fuels has run its course as the dominant source of global energy.

Here is that link.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2011/05/energy-conundrum.html  

I think fondly of this story when I read that we continue to spend untold billions of dollars to keep oil flowing in the Middle East. To me, the Iran war is mostly about oil, and a bit about Israel, proof being that North Korea has nuclear weapons but no oil and strangely, we don't seem to care about their nukes.

In the meantime, the DOD is asking for another $200 billion on top of their already outrageous budget after only a month of hostilities. Clearly, the cycle of our addiction to oil which became starkly apparent in the 1970's, has not abated, and that not only have we not learned why it is foolhardy to continue to focus on fossil fuels, this administration is idiotically squelching green energy projects, and bragging about doing so.

The only real question is will Trump complete the cycle and name Lee Zeldin as the next Attorney General, thereby cementing his legacy of gutting the EPA, continuing to prop up the fossil fuel industry and creating DOJ investigations out of whole cloth towards retribution against his political enemies. A trifecta of atrocities that will set America back decades, and just possibly result in my story coming true in the 2030's.  

As for my title, Righteous Terror, that is all just icing on the cake for two men in particular, Trump and Hegseth, who pray to a god who celebrates death and destruction. Not the same god that the Iranians pray to when they wish harm on America, but the same perversion of a belief in the idea of a righteous terror that their god supports. At least the pope has called them out on this, not that they ever really believed in Christ.