Why Do We Fight?

"The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest."
George Washington, 1796

That is a quote from George Washington's farewell address. From what I know, the USA never entered into alliances with foreign nations from that year(1796) until 1949, when we entered NATO. Since then, we've become the world police - similar to the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. All the warning signs are there, written on the wall. Worse than that, war has become a corporate, profit driven industry.

I'm no enemy of capitalism, but I think there needs to be a better balance of capitalism and democracy. These so-called "defense contractors" are making a killing by creating planes, missiles and warships for the USA. But who is really threatening us? Who is threatening our way of life? If we took some of the billions of dollars we spend on the military and invested it in alternative fuels and got past our addictions to oil, I think that would be a start. We'd find that noone is threatening us. We'd have no reason to set up military bases around the world to ensure our "stability" and we'd even find that people the likes of Osama bin Laden could care less about us. The military-industrial complex is perhaps the most oil-driven thing in existence. They essentially go to war to get oil to go back to war to get oil... etc... etc... etc...

Its very depressing to me because I love the USA dearly. I'm not some anti-American nut. I just see that we've gone astray from the ideals of the founding fathers. Corporations essentially run the wars and the government. Any government official who is not "strong on defense" has a major liability. Peace is for the weak. But do we really need oil? Can't we use some of the piles of tax dollars to break the addiction to fossil fuels? I don't think that the corporations will stand for it. And I think therein lies the problem. Our greed is tremendous. The hunger for more consumes us. These defense contractors like McDonald Douglass, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and, of course, Haliburton employ hundreds of thousands of people. These people make good money and pump those dollars right back into the economy. We can't just give those people pink slips. Can we? That would significantly damage the economy. The fact of the matter is that we've created a vicious cycle that is nearly impossible to break. It would be political suicide to even think of breaking this. But I honestly think that we can have more... way more... without being a belligerent, jingoistic nation.

I like capitalism for the most part. I think it is cool to be innovative, make money and get rich. I just don't think that profiteering of of wars is ethical and I truly believe that it contradicts fundamental American values. Our strength has always been that we could deal with other nations using an impartial hand. Almost similar to what China and India seem to be doing these days. Whether a country is run by a dictator or is a liberal democracy, we should be able to formulate relationships based on our interests. If we can't be impartial, we become slaves. If we don't act in good faith, we become imperialists. Many other nations like Germany, Japan and Great Britain have walked the same path and failed. What makes us so different? I don't know if this problem is going to get better in my lifetime. I hope it will. There is no political solution. We can only let capitalism run its course and, in this case, run itself into oblivion.